#she had a black friday sale going for a WEEK. starting from up to 40% off and then eventually up to 60% off.

[dduane]

By the way...

it was sort of last week, or maybe during the week before—I forget— when @petermorwood came downstairs to get tea while he was working on some long post or another full of guns and swords and assorted deadly weaponry—or cats, or food, or historical clothing, you know what he's like... and all of a sudden he said:

"So what about Cyber Monday?"

And I wasn't sure where that was coming from, as Peter normally doesn't spend a lot of his time being concerned about cyber stuff in general.

"Uh, why?" said I.

"Well, it's the Young Wizards anniversary month. Shouldn't you be doing some kind of sale offer over on Twitter, the way you did on Tumblr?"

My mouth kind of opened and shut again. Mostly at the moment when I think of Twitter, it's in terms of imagery involving things circling the drain at ever-increasing speed. And as far as Cyber Monday went, I hadn't really thought about it. This year I noticed that I've started kind of lumping it in with Black Friday, which mostly increasingly makes me mutter and shake my head as I see what my email box gets to look like this time of year. And since I'd been mostly preoccupied with writing issues and website crap lately, you could kind of multiply that not-caring by two. Or five. Or some power of ten.

...Yet he had a point. And what the hell, at least putting a video up there would remind people that the series existed! (Because people do seem to keep forgetting, and then suddenly bursting out with OH WAIT ARE THESE THOSE BOOKS I LOVED WHEN I WAS A KID, WAIT, YOU MEAN SHE WROTE THOSE, I THOUGHT ALL SHE DID WAS STAR TREK?!) (Eyeroll.)

"But I told them on Tumblr," I said, "that I wasn't going to do any more of these sales for the foreseeable future."

"Looks like you forgot to foresee this," said Himself, dumping half a cow's worth of milk in his tea as usual. "Look, if you do it just one more time, I bet they'll forgive you as long as you tell them about it so they can take advantage of it if they want to." Then he snickered. "And anyway, you told them you weren't going to do any Sherlock/Young Wizards fusions either, and look how that turned out." More snickering. "They forgave you for that. Eventually."

"Oh god."

"Just tell them. They'll let you off the hook." Up the stairs he went, still snickering. "Sometime in mid-2024 probably."

(eyeroll)

Dammitall, I hate it when he has a point.

So look. Here's the discount page. There's the video, two paragraphs down. You all know the drill. The "All the Wizardry" package is $29.99 today. The "I Want Everything You've Got" package is $40 just for today. Anybody who hasn't taken advantage of one of these offers previously, or didn't have the cash earlier, or wants to point somebody else at it...go knock yourself or -selves out with my abslute blessing. (Because who knows whether anybody on Twitter will notice at all, the way the algorithm's been behaving.)

And: everybody please forgive me. (abases herself before the assembled multitudes in the approved manner)

(...Anyway, WTH, it's worth a try. I want to get this friend of mine a new fountain pen for Christmas, and every little bit helps...) :)

(And a final reminder: we can't sell to people in Britain / the UK, it's a Brexit problem ... so sorry about that.)

[draftmare]

Quick and dirty review time!

My boot problem has been solved thanks to the wonders of Facebook groups. I found a seller with not one, but TWO pairs of Ariat boots in my size, BRAND NEW that they were selling for half of retail. So, I grabbed them both. I've only had them for a week, so here is my quick first impressions, because despite them being the exact same size, they fit very differently.

The first pair are the Ariat Kinsley dress boots. These are very much a typical "sock leather" type boot. I broke the zipper pull on one of the boots the first time I went to try them on, oops, but $30 later it has a new, much heavier duty zipper pull on it.

They are a little baggy around the back of my calf, but this is a problem I tend to have with a lot of boots. I don't so much need an XW calf in most boots for my calf itself, I need it for the area directly behind my knees. Because they are a thinner leather, they will likely be my showing, clinicing, and lessoning boots. The second pair are the Ariat V Sport boots. I have wanted a pair of these for a few years but could never seem to get my act together on buying them. I LOVE these. They fit my leg like a glove. None of the baggy behind the calf issue. If it weren't for the textured leather on the outer shaft, I might even show in them. They also have a thick, but soft leather on the inside panel that makes me hope that they will hold up to a lot of hours schooling in the saddle.

My only complaint with these is the footbed is very narrow. I am hoping that will break-in and loosen up with time and use, but the Kinsley boots had a much wider footbed right out of the box that was much more comfortable.

During the Black Friday sales I picked up the Collegiate ComfiTech Vogue bridle. A tack shop I stumbled across had it on clearance, and then let me stack their 20% off code on top of the clearance price. I have been low-key-no-key looking for a non-crank bridle for Sydney, so I decided to give this one a try.

For the price point I am pleasantly surprised with the leather quality. It's very supple out of the box, and with some leather conditioner I think it could be quite lovely. Unfortunately, I ran into a few issues with this bridle for Sydney specifically. First off, the buckle for the flash wanted to lay directly on her lips. You can see it does the same thing on the model horse as well.

This is really poor design, and I did not notice this when I was buying the bridle, or I would have passed on it entirely. The flash is fixed, so I can't slide the buckle into a better position. The other issue is that these bridles seem to run absolutely massive. I was basically on the last hole with the noseband, and I still couldn't get it to sit quite right on her face. She does have a very short face for a draft cross though. So, this was a fail for me, but hopefully somebody else will be able to use it.

Finally, I have to talk about my new favorite brand of gloves, Kunkle. I was first introduced to them 2-ish years ago when I showed up at a show without my gloves. At that time they were only offering black, mesh backed gloves, but those gloves almost immediately became my new favorite gloves. At the end of the show I went back to the tack trailer and bought another pair for schooling. During my last trip to the tack shop I discovered that they have vastly expanded their offering to include non-mesh gloves and winter gloves, of which I picked up a pair of each. Their gloves run $40 - $50, and honestly have a lot of the same good feel and quality of Roeckl, which I believe start at $60 and go on up from there. I own a LOT of pairs of Roeckl gloves, and most of them are on their last legs, so I am slowly going to be replacing them with these Kunkle gloves instead.

[meyhew]

I've been buying 90% of my clothes in second hand street markets for my entire life (we're talking 50c, 1€-3€ max if anything is above that it's already considered expensive lol) so I understand that like my perspective is very biased and that workers still need to get paid and stuff but like, already when I'm shopping in normal stores a 30€ sweatshirt feels so unnecessarily expensive, like a plain piece of jersey with a logo on it? and i paid around 40€ for a louis hoodie last year cause I had a sudden higher income of money for a bit and I decided to treat myself, but now everyone's merch it's like At Least 60€, if you're lucky you get an ugly 30€ t-shirt and like howwwww it's just so absurd to me to wrap my mind around the idea that in order for artists to release merch drops every so often with so many different pieces at such high prices, and for them to sold out every single time (although I guess this could be a publicity strategy as well idk to say they're sold out when they're really not) it means that they can count on A Lot of people buying this stuff regularly so there's people just spending hundreds of euros /whatever often enough for it to be worth it for them and like how why

like im not blaming the consumers, cause as a fan I'm also super gullible and fall very easily into the trap of yk wanting merch, "supporting" the artist, having a nice fan experience

and i partially get that the artists also "have" to do this (although I think it's only really a necessity for smaller artists who actually need it to support themselves and their carrier) but those prices just. don't sit right with me

ok im so sorry i had a glass of wine and that's the result ffs sorry for the rant nobody asked for. don't have to post this or reply ofc

agreed. i know merch across the board is ridiculously expensive now and it isn't just a problem with a few artists but i also believe it is heinous to charge that much for plain and boring products. creative graphics still wouldn't justify t-shirts for near $50 but at least it would be something—something to say "hey we're actually putting some thought & effort into this product and it isn't just a cash grab." i know, too, that it isn't the artists setting prices for individual products and that it all trickles down from the companies but again i also believe that artists have the power to negotiate those prices, especially when they're mainstream megastars—they just have to be willing to lose out on some of the profit, which most of them aren't. and it's not even like things need to be that expensive bc workers need to be paid; factory workers are NOT being paid enough to justify a boring sweater costing $90. at best they're being paid minimum wage, and we know that a lot of companies don't compensate their workers at all. i think artists dropping exorbitantly overpriced merch several times a year should be a punishable by law and that includes the ones i'm a fan of

[fbfh]

I think you've horribly misread the situation [shitty roommate pt 2] - leo x reader

wc: 2.3k

genre: contemporary drama, you're definitly going to get second hand embarrassment, cozy fluff

pairing: leo x reader, attempted isabella x leo

reader: gender neutral, they/them

requested: hell yeah

warnings: mild swearing, roommate tries to steal your man once again, mentions of various mainstream vampire media (twilight, the vampire diaries etc.), brief mention of castlevania (even though i haven't seen it yet lol), breif mention of videogames and assassins creed, very mild delusion (roommate is secretly convinced leo is a vampire that's in love with her), attempted age gap relationship (she's 17 and leo's 19, he shuts that down real fast), very bad poetry

summary: You and Leo are both looking foward to spending a long weekend together, and Leo is determined not to let anything interrupt it, even if it means turning down your roommate's attempts to seduce him in the kitchen.

a/n: absolutley no hate or shade or judgement to anyone who has the same or similar traits as isabella!!!!!! at her core she's annoying because she's the antagonist, not bc of any isolated trait or traits

also she's shitty cause she keeps trying to steal your boyfriend?????

Edit: I forgot to mention before, but this is a college au where you're both still demigods, so you went to camp and on quests and stuff together

This weekend is going to be all about recharging. Recharging from the ridiculous back to back closing and opening shifts at work, recharging from having to redo that stupid project twice because your professor couldn’t decide on a clear way to define the criteria, and recharging from Isabella having her townie friend Regan over almost non stop to “completely shake up her look” as she put it.

Between the constant presence of someone you’d barely consider an acquaintance and Big Time Rush’s self titled album blasting on repeat out of her giant airpod shaped speaker, it’s been harder than usual to get in some effective self care. You have no idea how many more times you can hear the phrase “I’m going for Jade West meets Elena Gilbert, with just a little Buffy Summers” before you lose your fucking mind.

Thankfully, the hard part is almost over. There’s some minor holiday tomorrow on friday, so you and Leo both have a three day weekend ahead of you, which you intend to spend entirely together. You planned ahead, frontloading homework, chores, errands, and everything you could think of to remove anything that isn’t cuddling or playing video games and watching netflix together from your horizon.

This includes going straight from work to the grocery store to stock the fridge and get any snacks you and Leo want. You had texted him a while ago asking for anything he was craving, and head into the store with a concrete list. After a while, you circle around some aisles, avoiding the check out.

“I feel like I’m forgetting something,” you muse, knowing it’s untrue, but hoping to trigger a memory anyway. You can’t put it off any longer, finally checking out and heading back to your apartment. You’d be lying if you said you weren’t avoiding Isabella just a little.

You know bringing in all these groceries would be way easier with Isabella and possibly Regan’s help, but you just don’t have the social energy to talk to anyone, much less her, right now. By some miracle, you bring everything in yourself, and hope to get it put away before you see Isabella.

You turn to the freezer, putting away the ice cream. When you turn back around, you’re suddenly met face to face with Isabella, who has opened one of the boxes and is picking at a pastry.

“Hey girlie,” she says, elongating the hey.

“Hey,” you reply lethargically, putting the last of the groceries away. She looks at the pastry in her hand like she’s just noticing it.

“Sorry, I can’t help it, I’m italian.” She smiles, endeared by her own behavior. You have no idea what being italian has to do with asking before you open a box of your roommate’s food, but this really isn’t out of character for her. She brings up the fact that she’s half italian more than Lele Pons blames her behavior on being latina.

She’s wearing sweatpants that say chaser on the leg in red and gold varsity font, and a tight tee shirt that says “it’s okay to love them both” with silhouettes of the male love interests from one of the vampire shows she always watches. You collect the plastic bags to put in recycling, and see a piece of paper on the counter.

It reads as follows:

Drowning in my mind

No one hears me cry

Who was I before society

Before society put me in a pink dress

And handed me blonde hair dye

And told me to lose ten pounds or be labeled a freak?

The happiest people cry the most

Let the lyrics be your story

But I’m not like the other skinny blonde pretty girls

I’m

Different

-b.g. xox

You hold back a sigh.

“I think this is yours.” you say, handing it to her.

“Oh, it’s just some of my poetry I left lying around, that’s so embarrassing.”

I know, you think, you do that all the time.

“Did you read it?” She asks, hopefully.

“Nope.”

“Thank god, that would have been so embarrassing. My poetry is something really… deep, and personal to me.”

“Uh huh. Hey, I’m going to be doing a lot of self care this weekend, so-”

“Oh!” she interjects, eerily similar to Phoebe Buffay - you guess she’s been watching friends again - “I wanted to ask… is Leo coming over later?” Her voice is riddled with subtext, the expression on her face a little too invested in your answer.

“Uh, yeah. I told you the other day we’re spending the weekend together…”

She cuts you off again, a sudden, intense look on her face.

“When will he be here?”

You check your phone, scrolling through your recent texts.

“By 7 at the latest.” It’s around 6:40 now.

“Oh my god, I have to change,” she rushes back to her room, presumably digging through her recent additions to her closet.

You’re frozen for a minute after the interaction, left with a furrowed brow and the beginnings of a headache. You blink, then choose to reschedule processing why she feels the need to change for your boyfriend to a more convenient time. That’s enough of that for today. You don’t care what else happens, you’re not talking to anyone besides Leo for at least the rest of the day. You retreat to your room to finally shower and change into something comfy. As you pass by Isabella’s room, you hear her talking to Regan.

“...There’s something almost… supernatural about him.”

You bite back a laugh.

“Do you think he’s a…” Regan begins, ending the sentence with something too quiet to hear, but you’d bet almost any organ she said vampire.

So close. So, so close, and yet… here you are.

Not much later, Leo texts you to let you know he’s here. You read his text, and run out to hug him in the living room before even typing a reply. He picks you up, and spins you around. The embrace is warm and fulfilling and familiar, and you wish it would last forever.

“Hi, Sparky.” you murmur into his neck.

“Estrella…” he says, rocking you back and forth gently and pressing a kiss into your jawline, “I missed you so much.” He punctuates the sentence with another kiss, this one to your lips, and you smile more genuinely than you have all day. You’re about to agree when you remember the good news you’ve been saving to tell him in person.

“Guess what I got on sale for like, half off,” you start, excitedly, continuing at his invested expression, “the Assassin’s Creed bundle I showed you!”

“No way,” he starts, and you nod.

“I’ll go get everything set up, drinks are in the kitchen!” He watches you retreat into your room, disbelieving how he could possibly get someone as perfect as you to fall for him. He’s not going to question his luck. He grabs a couple caffeinated sparkling ices, and meets you in your room, setting down his bag and grabbing some comfy clothes to change into.

As you both get settled in, you fill each other in on all the ridiculous shit you’ve been through this week. You finally conclude the bizarre - yet somehow standard - Isabella escapades.

“So I will be avoiding all contact as much as possible,” you laugh.

“Yeah, no shit,” he agrees, “Consider me your human buffer.” You thank him, hugging him again and pressing a kiss to his lips.

The next couple hours are spent cuddling and finishing season 4 of Castlevania. Both reeling from the season finale, you agree this is a good place to take a break, get some food, and decide what game you should start with. It’s already 10pm, which most people would consider too late for dinner, but you have all weekend to fuck up your sleep schedules.

“Let’s review,” Isabella says, holding up two red lipsticks. She turns to Regan. “Which one?”

“That one,” Regan says, pointing to the one on the left, then turns to her list, and continues. “Here’s what we know; we’ve never seen him eat, and he never seems tired. He’s really smart-”

“Almost too smart,” Isabella adds, selecting black rose dangle earrings from her jewelry. Regan agrees, and continues.

“He’s almost hypnotically attractive, and his smile is a little too dazzling.”

“There’s something… supernatural about him. Like he’s not… all human.”

Regan writes this down.

“Plus he’s always wearing black and red, and those flowy button up shirts? It’s all adding up, Ree. That dream that someone was outside my window, the ring, everything…” She says, referencing the black and red cocktail ring she’d found with her stuff when she’d first moved, “I’m not saying it’s definite, just that… there’s a chance.”

“What about…” Regan says hesitantly, nodding toward your room.

“Please,” she scoffs, “he’s only with them to get close to me, like Damon and Caroline. Edward couldn’t have just approached Bella out of the blue, he had to infiltrate her friend group first, to seem less suspicious. Not to sound mean or anything, but they really don’t seem like the type someone… like him… would choose.” her voice gets dreamy when she mentions him.

In spite of having seen most mainstream vampire media almost as many times as Isabella, Regan still considers her the expert on these things, and decides not to point out that Edward didn’t infiltrate Bella’s friend group. Maybe it comes up in one of the retellings she hasn’t read yet.

“So, what now?”

Isabella sets down her lipstick, and turns to her friend.

“I tell him.”

Regan’s eyes widen.

“You’re going to tell him you know?”

“No… not yet. It’s too soon, we don’t have enough evidence. I’m going to tell him I know he’s in love with me, then once he’s secure in our relationship... we’ll see where it goes.”

She stands up, assessing herself in the mirror. She chose her outfit carefully; short red dress with black roses and black mesh collar, black rose bracelet to match her earrings, snug faux leather jacket, and black stiletto ankle booties with a very skinny heel, the zipper on the outside gold, not silver. She fluffs her wavy hair and turns towards the door. She looks back one more time, holding onto the doorway.

“Wish me luck.”

Leo enters the kitchen, seeing Isabella already there, leaning against the counter seductively. She’s wearing an outfit and jewelry this late at night that makes Leo wonder if she’s going to an emo tea party. He puts the takeout in the microwave. She’s still staring at him.

“Uh… hey.”

She lets out a dainty giggle, looking him up and down.

“... Hi.”

At a loss for words, and really wanting the awkward silence to be over, he continues, “Did you need something?”

“What I need,” she walks closer to him, tracing her finger over his collar, “is you.”

What the fuck?

His brain seems to stall for a moment, and she uses this opportunity to continue.

“I know why you’re here. I know that you’re only using them to get closer to me. I know-”

“Woah-”

“That you’re in love with me.”

Okay, double what the fuck.

She takes his stunned silence as shyness, and steps closer, putting her arms around his shoulders.

“You don’t need to play so coy, I-”

This time she’s the one that gets cut off. He grabs her arms and gently steps away, trying to make it abundantly clear that he’s not into this.

“Woah, okay, slow down. First of all, you’re 17 and I’m turning 20 in a couple months, so that’s a hard no. Second, I don’t know where you got this idea, but I am not dating them to get closer to you. We’ve known each other since we were like, 15, and have been through everything together. I’ve only known you for a couple months. I love them. Probably more than I’ve loved anything ever. I thought that was pretty obvious.”

He doesn’t want to be mean, he really doesn’t, but he can tell from the look on her face that she still thinks this is all part of some game.

“So why don’t I ever see you eat? Why are you so smart, and always up at night? I know what you are.”

He has to physically hold back a laugh. He takes a step back, and places his hands on the counter.

“Isabella, I have adhd. And I’m literally an engineering student. Why wouldn’t I be smart and have a shitty sleep schedule?”

She starts to protest, and he pulls out the reheated take out from the microwave.

“And for the record, I do eat.”

Exiting the kitchen quickly and retreating back to your room, he hands you your food.

“I got the game set up!” you say excitedly.

“Nice!”

You take one look at his face and can tell something happened. He sees this, and continues.

“I just had a very… interesting interaction with Isabella,” before he finishes the sentence, your head is already in your hands. You let out a groan.

“What did she do?” you mutter from behind your hands.

He pulls you into his lap, rubbing your back.

“I’m not totally sure,” you laugh, “but I think she thinks I’m secretly in love with her…” you’re both laughing before he can even finish the sentence.

“No…” you laugh, “no fucking way…”

“Believe me, I put an end to that as soon as it started.”

“Oh, I do.”

He runs his hand over your back, and you’re quiet for a moment.

“You know,” he continues, “I think getting our own place has definitely moved up the priority list.”

You couldn’t agree more.

[deadcactuswalking]

REVIEWING THE CHARTS: 15/05/2021 (Coldplay, J. Cole, Trippie Redd & Playboi Carti)

I’m awful at predicting this chart, I really am, but most of that is probably down to how I only make vague predictions at the end of each episode without even considering most releases that’ll actually chart. Let’s just say I didn’t expect nine new arrivals this week. At the top, however, little has changed as the absolutely huge “Body” by Russ Millions and Tion Wayne with a remix featuring whoever the hell is spending its second week at #1. The rest of the chart, however, gets a bit more interesting. Welcome back to REVIEWING THE CHARTS.

Rundown

The biggest story to effect the chart this week is of course 2021’s BRIT Awards happening this Tuesday, which I’m sure boosted a lot of songs during the mid-week. I also actually covered the awards show on that day if you’re curious, with some of my observations, predictions and opinions. We can very clear see – or hear, for that matter – the impact of the BRIT Awards in this week’s chart, as it did cause a lot of gains and new arrivals that shook up the chart right in the middle of the tracking week. Firstly, we do have some drop-outs from the UK Top 75, which is what I cover, only one of them, “Paradise” by MEDUZA and Dermot Kennedy, being all that important given it was a top five hit but we do have a handful that lasted five or more weeks or peaked in the top 40, like “Medicine” by James Arthur flopping embarrassingly, “Addicted” by Jorja Smith dropping out to prepare for the rebound next week given her album release and “Solid” by Young Stoner Life, Young Thug and Gunna featuring Drake.

Speaking of Drake, he also provides the singular returning entry as “Wants and Needs” featuring Lil Baby is proving to be the actual hit from that three-pack from March, coming back to #65. Scaling down the chart, we also have some notable losses, songs that dropped at least five spots on this week’s chart. Those that fell include “Your Power” by Billie Eilish dropping harshly to #15 off of the debut, as well as “Your Love (9PM)” by ATB, Topic and A7S at #18, “Confetti” by Little Mix to #21 off of the return (with Saweetie, the artist quite literally solely the reason it’s had this second wind, still bizarrely left without a credit by the UK Singles Chart), “My Head & My Heart” by Ava Max at #27, “Titanium” by Dave at #31, “Wellerman” by Nathan Evans and remixed by 220 KID and Billen Ted (yes, THEY’RE credited) at #36, “Patience” by KSI featuring YUNGBLUD and Polo G at #42, “Heartbreak Anniversary” by Giveon at #44, “We’re Good” by Dua Lipa at #47, “Way Too Long” by Nathan Dawe, Anne-Marie and MoStack at #49, “Head & Heart” by Joel Corry and MNEK at #51, “Beautiful Mistakes” by Maroon 5 and Megan Thee Stallion at #55, “Don’t Play” by Anne-Marie, KSI and Digital Farm Animals at #56, “Calling My Phone” by Lil Tjay and 6LACK at #59, “Commitment Issues” by Central Cee at #67, “You” by Regard, Troye Sivan and Tate McRae at #69, “Get Out My Head” by Shane Codd at #70, “Hold On” by Justin Bieber getting ACR’d at #71, “Streets” by Doja Cat at #73 and finally, “6 for 6” by Central Cee at #75.

Filling up the room for those losses, however, are the gains, always a tad more interesting, as the songs that rose at least five spots on this week’s chart – or make their first appearance in the top 40, 20 or 10 – are usually having the BRITs to thank to some capacity. The climbers include “Summer 91 (Looking Back)” giving Noizu his first top 40 hit at #31 (and I’ll admit, the song is growing on me), Griff also getting her first with “Black Hole” at #35 thanks to her win and performance at the BRITs, “WITHOUT YOU” by The Kid LAROI rebounding to #13 thanks to that once-again uncredited remix with Miley Cyrus and finally, entering the top 10 for the first time is “Anywhere Away from Here” by Rag’n’Bone Man and P!nk at #9, getting the boost from a perfect trifecta of gains: Rag’n’Bone Man released his album on Friday then on Tuesday had the closing performance of this song at the BRIT Awards with additional vocals from the Lewisham and Greenwich NHS choir, who are also now appearing on a new release of the song the day after, prompting a whole lot of sales, of which I assume and hope are going to charity. It’s Rag’n’Bone Man’s third top 10 hit, P!nk’s 21st(!) and interestingly enough, the NHS choir’s second top 10 hit as they had the Christmas #1 back in 2015. With all of that out of the way, I suppose it’s time to get to our varied array of new arrivals.

NEW ARRIVALS

#74 – “Dick” – Starboi3 featuring Doja Cat

Produced by Nius and SoFLY

This week is kind of a weird week if that wasn’t immediately obvious as our new arrivals are kind of all over the place, starting with... well, I think I could say less about the song than the title does. Starboi3 is this SoundCloud rapper from New Jersey who made a song with Doja back in 2019 – I assume she was more accessible for features back then –and it didn’t blow up at all, really, giving Starboi3 some additional traction but not until 2020, in which Doja Cat got her #1 hit and TikTok picked up this explicit single as a new sound. Sadly – or thankfully – the song was never released officially onto streaming until very recently, meaning, surely, the hype’s over by now? The answer to that is no, as it’s climbing up charts in both the UK and the Bubbling Under in the US... so there’s got to be something good about this song, right? Well, no. Not at all. Of course, that is subjective, but I do question your sanity if you’re honestly enjoying this unlikeable nobody shout “Dick!” over a basic, no-melody trap instrumental with heavy 808s not too dissimilar to drill, before going into a beyond basic chorus and verse about, well, you can guess, with rhymes sounding either like an awful freestyle or a kid with a rhyming dictionary. “She not with him tonight, she not with Jim tonight”? Of course, that’s in the post-chorus because if there’s one thing this song needs, it’s a freaking post-chorus. I also don’t think Starboi3 realises that making her scream for her parents is quite the opposite of sexy – or even raunchy and mindless, as it’s actually just creepy and terrifying. Speaking of terrifying, Doja Cat is here and not even she can add a less basic flow with a verse that just ends up going in one ear and out the other, even if I do like the seductive backing vocals that at least try to make this not a slow, joyless slog. However, I do NOT like the Pickle Rick reference. To be fair, this was 2019, but also to be fair, never reference that again, I am begging you. This is a disaster on all fronts and probably one of the worst tracks I’ve had to review in this series. Good start!

#64 – “Freaks” – Surf Curse

Produced by Surf Curse

This new song is actually even older, being released initially as a deep cut from this Nevada duo’s 2013 album. As you’ll probably tell, this is charting off of people streaming after hearing the song on TikTok and, I mean, at least the song’s actually good this time, careening off of a clearly surf-inspired clean riff surrounded by some basic drumming and a good bassline. It’s not great as it does feel increasingly basic as I said, almost like one of those local bands that don’t get much national attention or traction but do play some gigs and get some love at those places, to the point where it’s kind of big if they play shows outside of their region... which makes sense because that is exactly what they are. This is just some band from Reno but here it is charting on the UK Singles Chart and while it’s here, I should say whilst there’s not much here to discuss given how minimal it is, Nick Rattigan’s vocals are fittingly desperate for the theme of social alienation and particularly rejection as it’s pretty obvious he’s aiming venom at himself for a bad break-up, although given the sound and tone of the song, probably his first, with that double meaning of the mantra in the outro, “I won’t wake up this time”, potentially being a crushing line for someone in similar circumstances. That’s not me, exactly, so this doesn’t hit, but I’m glad that Machine Gun Kelly song from last week got replaced with some actually decent alternative rock on the chart. I hope this does well.

#60 – “One Day” – Lovejoy

Produced by Cameron Nesbitt

“One Day” is the biggest track from new English rock band Lovejoy’s debut EP, Are You Alright?, and whilst I was planning on not mentioning the fact that the band is fronted by Minecraft YouTuber Wilbur Soot, that is the only reason it’s charting – and he’s charted with “Your New Boyfriend” a couple months back, a song that I actually kind of liked. It’s also immediately obvious in the writing that this comes from an Internet personality, with some not-so-well-woven detail and increasingly gratuitous self-awareness that eventually cycles back and ends up as seeming like they have none at all... okay, like most indie bands but that’s beside the point. This happens to be Wilbur’s least favourite song on the release – one that I haven’t listened to because even if I’m not too old for mindless pop music, Minecraft YouTuber alt-rock may be where I draw the line – and I can completely understand the distaste for this given that it starts with the line, “Why’d you have to kill my cat?” I also have some qualms with the song sonically as it may be the most derivative rock single I’ve heard on this series, given how obviously it rips from indie rock bands of the 2000s, with an oddly clean mix that doesn’t exactly fit the obvious stream-of-consciousness lyrics and Wilbur’s erratic delivery. Also, there’s a whole lot of trumpet on this song, which I guess is a surprise, but that doesn’t make up for a drummer who can clearly play very well but has to chaotically play over a song with practically no groove. I do like that second chorus in how it builds up to a somewhat anti-climactic guitar solo but as a full song I do not really get the appeal of this that I don’t get out of other post-punk revival bands from decades back who are still pumping out music. This isn’t bad – I swear, don’t dox me – but I just want something more compelling from this. I will always be glad regardless of the quality that we have more rock on the chart, though, even if this’ll be gone by next week.

#57 – “It’s a sin” – Years & Years and Elton John

Produced by Stuart Price and the Pet Shop Boys

One of my favourite performance from the BRIT Awards this year was Olly Alexander of Years & Years sharing the stage with the iconic Elton John to cover Pet Shop Boys’ “It’s a Sin” which had renewed interest from last year as it was the namesake for a hit TV series about HIV/AIDS, for which this fittingly played a role and has kind of been recontextualised as a gay anthem, which makes complete sense if you look at its lyrics about the Church telling Neil Tennant “how to be”. It’s also one of the Pet Shop Boys’ most camp and theatrical songs, so giving it to Years & Years and Elton John to cover for the BRIT Awards make all too much sense. No, they’re not able to live up to the theatricality of the original, especially if Alexander’s vocals are going to be this clearly manipulated at points, but with Elton John’s piano laying a perfect foundation for the rising intensity of the track, we do get a sense of that original melodrama, with the synth-work and house groove coming in before Elton John’s voice, sounding smokier and wiser with age, and in my opinion, more compelling as a vocalist, especially if they’re both going to sell this song with the most convicted of deliveries. I don’t think a cover could ever live up to that original iconic track but if anyone’s going to get close, it’s Elton John. Expect this to rise next week.

#50 – “Never Left” – Lil Tecca

Produced by ThankYouWill, Taz Taylor and Cxdy

I’ll always be annoyed that Lil Tecca blew up as a rapper instead of a producer, as I don’t think this guy has any likeability or charisma about his flow, cadence or delivery, and that’s only after you get over how dry and whiny his voice can get. However, he can make some great and incredibly infectious beats for other rappers, including a song I see becoming a hit soon in SoFaygo’s “Knock Knock”, which I will bet on at least making the Billboard Hot 100 if not the UK Singles Chart. It’s unbelievably catchy. With that said, Tecca is here in the form of some SoundCloud raps over a boring synth pluck and vaguely tropical Internet Money trap beat, sounding and flowing way too much like Gunna for his own benefit, or Gunna’s benefit, if we’re honest, as this shows how easily he can be replaced. I usually don’t write off this type of rap and will absolutely defend it, but this song isn’t even catchy or unique. I mean, I don’t like “Ransom” either but at least it was kind of fun and I still know the lines in the chorus a couple years later. I’ll forget all about this by next week if it doesn’t stick around. At least he shouts out Chief Keef. God, I hope he charts sometime, that’d be funny.

#45 – “All I Know So Far” – P!nk

Produced by Greg Kurstin

So, P!nk is back but not with a studio album, rather an upcoming live album in which the two new, original songs are about or featuring her daughter. This is the second single from said album and is probably coasting off her appearance at the BRITs in terms of a relatively high chart debut. I’ve never been that big a fan of P!nk but she has her classics, none of which are in the past 15 years but that’s beside the point. This single in particular is an acoustic ballad dedicated to her daughter in which P!nk provides a rapid intensity alongside pretty great-sounding acoustic guitars, pounding drums and strings that sells the content about empowering yourself, with some nice lyrical detail about always being yourself, basically, which would come off as cliché and preachy if it weren’t for some oddly specific lyrics in those verses and the chorus that basically just tell her daughter that despite the fact the world will constantly try to crack down on her and everything she does much like life does to anyone but especially women, she should stand up for herself and what she believes in. However, none of that cuts deep when she’s being raised by a millionaire, huh? There’s little Hell to be put through when you’re born with a silver spoon, huh, Willow? Regardless, this isn’t a bad pop song and its content isn’t as misguided as it is just sang by the wrong singer, although I’d find it hard to get a singer with as much rasp and wisdom in the mainstream to sell this as convincingly as P!nk does – vocally, not lyrically. This is a couple steps above that last single, “Cover Me in Sunshine” at least, which was just insidious. Next.

#32 – “Miss the Rage” – Trippie Redd featuring Playboi Carti

Produced by Loesoe

Okay, so all of our last three new arrivals are in the top 40 and we start with... o-okay, well, it’s 2021, anything can and will chart and I should know this by now, but it’s still surprising to see a song by these two guys debut so high, especially since Whole Lotta Red produced absolutely no charting hits in the UK outside of “@ MEH”, which doesn’t really count. This is Trippie’s highest-charting song ever in the UK that isn’t fronted by KSI, so I guess streaming must have been that good – also, the charts are still weak. For what it’s worth, I do like both Trippie and Carti to their respective extents, and I am aware that this is only as big as it was because of the hype from the leak, which also featured Mario Judah, and that in itself was a big song but it took years for Carti’s feature to be cleared by the label, as is infamously true for much of Carti’s work and even his last official collaboration with Trippie that was actually deleted after release. I’m still hoping on an official release for his verse on Yung Lean’s “Yayo”, but whilst we have this instead, I might as well talk about it and... Well, let me explain to you what I see as the appeal of these two rappers. That appeal is, mostly, that they don’t rap even though they both very much can. Trippie yells, moans, growls, screams and spends most of his work singing in his typical raspy, venomous voice, whilst Playboi Cart spits and coughs his way through substance-less ad-libs to the point where any actual wordplay or lyrical detail gets you excited for that brief moment. In this song, Trippie and Carti don’t eschew the typical role of a rapper and both just... rap normally, which would not be a complaint if they weren’t so bland in that role, which is the whole point of their unique, phlegm-filled deliveries in the first place. As a result, this song just ends up feeling empty, even if this awfully-mixed, bass-boosted beat with some lovely distorted video-game synths and hardly audible trap skitters does go incredibly hard. Don’t get me wrong: this is still catchy and Trippie flows very well over a beat that sounds made for him and Carti. Hell, Carti has grown on me so much recently that my fondness for this might just be me eating anything he releases up. With that said, he’s the worst part of the song as his baby-voice style emphasises how lacking this song is in just anything. I do like the wordplay at the tail-end of the verse as, yes, that happens, perhaps not as iconic as some of his other oddly profound or clever lines on his last record but at least it’s something. At least this is some interesting American trap, unlike...

#25 – “i n t e r l u d e” – J. Cole

Produced by J. Cole, Tommy Parker and T-Minus

The pandemic has affected the music industry to the point where big-name rappers release album interludes as lead singles. Said album has songs shorter than this interlude, with most of its dull filler feeling like additional interludes, quite unbefitting for such a big and hyped-up album from Cole which frankly is just another boring addition to an already consistently dull catalogue. I’m just not interested in what Cole has to say because he’s never been likeable and I feel like there’s better rappers that bridge the gap between old and new like how Cole sees himself as doing, the “MIDDLE CHILD”, perhaps, like, you know, Drake? If we want to go for a more direct comparison from lesser-known rappers, the direct comparison I use for this new record is Aminé’s latest, also made up of a variation of trap bangers featuring massive, charting names versus introspective, conscious lyrics, yet Aminé is an interesting character with quotable lyrics that aren’t embarrassing, knows how to write an actual hook and whilst he also brings on both classic and modern features, he’s never out-done by them, creating an actual bridge rather than just some guy who thinks he can write his own role in the industry and culture without his own music backing his case. Unfortunately for me, it works – every freaking time – largely because of his continually loyal fanbase but also a general public interest in the guy that I do not understand, especially when more than a decade into his career, he’s still pushing out mediocre projects. He cuts his album’s length by a ton and still ends up with a bloated record. I barely need to talk about the track itself, right? Even if it has as much structure and effort put into it as his normal songs do, it’s labelled quite literally as an interlude. Sigh, well, in this interlude, Jermaine raps over a drowned-out soul sample and admittedly, sticks to the topic of reminiscing on where he came from, the violence in Fayetteville, a similar violence of which was what killed Nipsey Hussle, who he compares amongst Pimp C and Jesus as they all died at 33. Cole himself is 36 so I guess for once he doesn’t think he’s Jesus. It took him a while to realise.

#12 – “Higher Power” – Coldplay

Produced by Max Martin, Oscar Holter and Bill Rahko

I assumed this would debut at #3 until the BRIT Awards performance gave it a boost to debut at the top but I guess everyone else had the same opinion of that awful opening performance as I did, because here it is at #12. Well, that doesn’t matter, right? Coldplay’s last album similarly underperformed... but at least that time, they had a genuinely ambitious album for once in their careers with some genuine experimentation and themes I did not expect to come out of Coldplay. It was a better album but not an accessible one, with its only pop single being a bittersweet anti-war anthem which trivialises bombing in the Middle East to onomatopoeia. It’s a great song but it wasn’t going anywhere, so it’s no surprise that their next lead single is a soulless synth-pop track produced by Max Martin. Admittedly, the synth tone in the intro is kind of unique in all its nasal 80s nostalgia, but, man, I thought we moved past just rehashing for a hit, Coldplay. This is pretty obviously just a crap attempt at being “Blinding Lights” which trades in its machine-gun loco-motive drum pattern for one that is a lot more stiff, and its iconic, memorable lyrics for a forgettable set of love-struck laziness. Oh, yeah, and Chris Martin is far from the Weeknd both in the studio and live at the BRIT Awards – seriously, dude sounded half-alive. This isn’t offensive, just a bore that is clearly a desperate label move ready for when they can tour again, and if their last record proved anything it was that Coldplay seemed like they were finally above that.

Conclusion

Well, that’s our week – again, a questionable one at best and kind of a bad one at worst. Either way, this is a strange array of songs and I do like how the UK Singles Chart subverts everything you’d expect of it so often that chaos becomes the trend, even if not all of it is any good. I guess Best of the Week goes to “Freaks” by Surf Curse, with an Honourable Mention to Elton John’s cover of “It’s a sin” with Years & Years. Surprisingly enough, J. Cole actually doesn’t get Worst of the Week as the album gets a lot worse than that interlude, so he gets a Dishonourable Mention alongside Starboi3’s “Dick” being crowned Worst of the Week, and honestly probably Worst of the Year so far, not that I’m keeping track of that. Here’s this week’s top 10:

What’s coming next week? More J. Cole, Olivia Rodrigo’s newest single and probably – and hopefully – some album tracks from Jorja Smith and Nicki Minaj. For now, though, thanks for reading. It’s a big week next week, and I’ll see you then!

[the-fushiguros]

50 Questions You’ve Never Been Asked Before

I was tagged by @agoodafternoon Thanks so much!! These are fun!

1.What is the color of your hairbrush?

My hair is way too curly for a hairbrush. I just run my fingers through it in the shower. Otherwise it just breaks all my hair.

2.A food you never eat?

Onions! I know it’s a little childish, but I’ll sit there and pull all the little chopped up onions out of a dish before I eat it.

3.Are you typically too warm or too cold?

Too warm!

4.What were you doing 45 minutes ago?

Reading the paper. I do that every morning with a cup of coffee. Because my soul is really 85 years old.

5.What is your favorite candy bar?

Hershey

6.Have you ever been to a professional sports event?

Yup! I prefer college-level sports though and I go to basketball games at my school pretty often.

7.What is the last thing you said out loud?

"Physical Graffiti is the best Led Zeppelin album. I’ll fight you”

8.What is your favorite ice cream?

As much chocolate as you can fit in a bowl. Add brownies. And chocolate sauce. And marshamallows.

9.What was the last thing you to drink?

Coffee

10.Do you like your wallet?

I just have a purse. And I don’t like it that much, actually. It’s too big. I usually just shove my keys/credit cards in my pocket when I go out.

11.What was the last thing you ate?

Two hard boiled eggs and a cup of strawberries with hand-whipped cream. My usual breakfast.

12.Did you buy any new clothes last weekend?

No.

13.The Last sporting event you watched?

Sports have been cancelled with the pandemic. I think the last thing I actually sat down and paid attention to was a WNBA game.

14.What is your favorite flavor of popcorn?

Movie theatre butter.

15.Who was the last person you sent a text message to?

James

16.Ever go camping?

Not, like, sleeping in a tent kind of camping. My family takes yearly trips up to a pretty secluded lake but we stay in a cabin.

17. Do you take vitamins?

No.

18.Do you go to church every Sunday?

I think I’ve gone to church about three times in my life. All for other people’s weddings or funerals.

19.Do you have a tan?

No. 

20.Do you prefer Chinese food or pizza?

Both? Depends on the mood.

21.Do you drink your soda with a straw?

I don’t drink soda. I don’t like the fizz. And yes, I know that’s weird.

22.What color socks do you usually wear?

Black

23.Do you ever drive above the speed limit?

Yeah. I don’t think I know anybody who only drives the speed limit or under tbh.

24.What terrifies you?

Real talk? Dying young because of my diabetes and its complications. 

25.Look to your left, what do you see?

My guitar and amp

26.What chore do you hate?

Cleaning the bathroom. It’s just...yucky

27.What do you think of when you hear and Australian Accent?

No thoughts really? It’s not my favourite accent. Not my least favourite either.

28.What’s your favorite soda?

None

29.Do you go in a fast food place or just hit the drive thru?

The drive thru

30.Favorite cut of beef?

Okay. Okay. I have a very strong opinion on this. Steak fillet, cooked on the stove after half an hour sitting in a sharp red wine. Thinly sliced. Served with a baked potato. And peas. That’s my go to meal when I’m trying to impress someone.

31.Who’s the last person you talked to?

My mother. She’s the one I was arguing with about the Led Zeppelin albums. Quarantine has exhausted our other topics of conversation 😂

32.Last Song you listened to?

What You Do to Me: John Legend

33.Last Book you read?

Cover to cover? The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

34.Favorite Day of the week?

Friday. I don’t have class and it’s usually my one day a week to relax.

35.Can you say the alphabet backwards?

Nope!

36.How do you like your coffee?

Super sweet. I usually take mochas or something like that where there’s more milk than actual coffee.

37.Favorite pair of shoes?

I have a pair of brown ankle boots that I love! I don’t wear them too much though because most of my wardrobe is black. And you just can’t wear brown shoes with an all black outfit. You can’t.

38.At what time do you normally go to bed?

I try to stick to around 11. But that hardly ever works. Catch me up at 3am suddenly intent on writing a full-length novel.

39.At what time do you normally get up?

7:30. My dog won’t let me sleep any later than that.

40.What do you prefer sunrise or sunsets?

I think sunrises are prettier. But I’m hardly ever in a position where I can just sit and watch one. My mornings are usually hectic.

41.How many blankets are on your bed?

Two

42.Describe your kitchen plates?

Plain blue and brown. Got them from Ikea. On sale. 

43.Do you have a favorite alcoholic beverage?

Whiskey. Two shots of whiskey almost always start my nights out when we go to a bar.

44.Do you play cards?

Yes? And no. I play cards a lot with my family and friends but we never play Poker and I know that’s what most people think when they say they’re playing cards.

45. What color is your car?

Silver

46. Can you change a tire?

I thought I knew how. And then a few months ago I had to change one in the middle of a road trip and things...didn’t go well.

47.What is your favorite state/providence?

I’m going to say New York, but only because if I do end up staying in America, NYC is the only place I can see myself happily living.

48.Favorite job you’ve ever had?

I’ve not really had a real, adult job yet. But I really enjoyed working at the zoo for a few summers.

49.How did you get your biggest scar?

Kitchen knife. The scar goes nearly all the way around my forearm.

50.What did you do today that made someone else happy?

My dad and I like to read the comics in the newspaper together, share the ones we liked best.

And i tag @a-secretkey @cibelica @snazzy-pickle and anyone else who wants to do it!

[wasalwaysagreatpickle]

Friday 15 August 1828

7 1/2

11 20/60

Packing – breakfast at 9 35/60 – sat talking – Miss Duffin arrived in Brussels with her brother’s children – the following is an extract from Miss Ellen Duffin’s letter of 4 June last to Mr D- [Duffin] ‘she has placed Charles at the athénée where for £28 per annum he is boarded lodged, his clothes washed and mended, taught the classics, French, Dutch, German, mathematics, fencing and dancing, never is there even an extra charge – there are 6 weeks holidays, in summer, during which time he is to remain at school, to be perfected in the French language for the sum of 3 florins, about 15 shillings English money – she has very good furnished lodgings for about £40 per annum including the attention of the servant’ – the Johnsons at Interlacken with which Mrs J- [Johnson] is delighted – live at the cassino at 5 francs a day, bed and lodging and everything included – Miss Ellen D- [Duffin] to marry (next month) Mr John J- [Johnson], Colin’s younger brother – 

What Mrs D [Duffin] leaves them is but annuity goes to the brothers at the sisters death cannot go to their husbands even for life and not even to their children without the person who made the will has luckily put it in Mrs D [Duffin] seems to think it is not but he strikes me as much altered in point of faculty – 

Mr D- [Duffin] strikes me as much altered in point of faculty – Mrs D- [Duffin] allowed his memory was not quite so good – he appears in pretty good health – but somehow I scarce feel as if I should see him again, if I do not pass through again to Langton – Mrs D- [Duffin] evidently does everything – answers for him in all cases – he is evidently declining – 

Mentioned but not much having been at the Thackerays’, and how kind of attentive lady Elizabeth was – Mrs D- [Duffin] shewed me in 1 of the York papers ‘at Edinburgh on the 3rd instant lady Elizabeth T- [Thackeray] of a daughter’ – said I might perhaps write to congratulate her – asked where else I had been – at the Seaforths’ – invited to the Riddles’ etc. said I most regretted not being able to visit Mr Stuart McKenzie (Lord S-’s oldest daughter and heir, and married first to admiral Sir Samuel Hood with whom she was in India) – 

Tis singular but I have for some years fancied Mrs D [Duffin] somewhat jealous of my getting on, I have fancied this from the time of my getting as it were from under her governance. She has formerly said peevishly two or three times ‘you get on’ latterly nothing of this but then she never says as she might I am glad you get into such nice society etc. etc. On the contrary she has never latterly given me a helping hand where she might somehow or other she has kept back the Faifaxes this morning. I fairly put her to it about introducing me to the Simpsons at Brussels but she never said a word and of course I would not ask it plainly. I said we might go to Brussels that what I chiefly prized and wanted was a nice society she had before been, as it were, apologizing for not giving Jane Duffin a letter to the S’s [Simpsons]. They were in too high society for Jane who would be spending too much money if introduced to them. She cordially hates Jane, I said, by the way I will not say that I myself shall on her I know not whether she will smack the door in my face or not, you know why we quarrelled (it was about Miss Milne as she then was) she seemed pleased – she is surely jealous of my getting on. I do not admire Sophia and that too is heinous Mrs H.S.B [Henry Stephen Belcombe] told me she did it out of compassion, the poor girl received so much rudeness and inattention but this perhaps she would not say ill natured things which were also repeated against her. Her aunt had been very foolish about her every said was on sale and she was never likely now to marry well, scarce any but the Fairfaxes and Hutchinsons kind to her she would scarcely go out at all last winter – how different all this from Mrs D [Duffin]s puffing I am very cautious what I say to her tho I do seem to rattle away. She is a dangerous woman however good may be her intentions she owns now her brother has a fault that of over liking good living she says it is a let down to a man like him – 

Off from the D- [Duffin’s] per True Briton light coach (starts from the Tavern at 12 3/4) at 12 50/60 – had an inside place but went on the box – at Tadcaster in an hour – 5 minutes changing there at the Rose and Crown – only 22 1/2 minutes going the 1st five miles out of Tadcaster i.e. to the Inn on Bramham moor, where we stopt a minute or 2 – the moment the coachman saw the opposite coach (from the Black Swan) before him he set at gallop for about a couple of miles – I certainly wished myself safe landed but never uttered – 2 gentleman behind begged him to go slower, but he took no notice – on going slower afterwards he began to argue with the gents that there was no danger – that the mails were much the most dangerous of all coaches – the least thing would turn them over – a yard higher than our coach, and the tops always proportionately larger than those of other coaches – a gentleman in the inside remonstrated – the man said he had a lady outside on the box who had never said a word – I said this was no rule – though not alarmed thought it much better and safer to drive moderately – for those who said nothing, might make up their minds never to trouble the coach again – the man seemed to think he had overdone it, and tried all the ways to make up for it, and went afterwards even slower than necessary – 

8 minutes changing horses at the Flying horse, and did not get to the Rose and Crown, Leeds, till 3 25/60 – 1 1/2 hour to wait there to change coaches – my carpet bag had been left behind – wrote 2 or 2 1/2 pp. to Mrs D- [Duffin] by the coachman, to ask her to have forwarded by him and telling her that we had exceeded in the first five miles out of Tadcaster the quickest of the mails – the Edinburgh by York to London 400 miles in 42 hours (including stoppages) not quite 10 miles an hour – the Glasgow to Leeds 120 miles in 12 hours (including stoppages) just 10 miles an hour – we had gone 5 miles in 22 1/2 minutes about 13 miles an hour – stopped not more than a minute an hour at most – not reckoned, I think, at much more than 1/2 mile an hour – 

Off from Leeds at 5 – Kirkstal abbey looks a fine large remain – I really must go and see it, and ought to see Wakefield and the village of Heath – at Bradford at 6 20/60 – changed coaches again – now a 3 horse coach that stops alternately at the White Lion and Union Cross, Halifax – this twice changing is rather too much – never try it again if a moderate quantity of luggage – changed coaches and off from Bradford in 10 minutes at 6 35/60 – very bad leader – by dint of whipping alight at the Pineapple, Halifax, at 7 3/4 – 

Getting all my luggage safely housed here, and get to Shibden in 1/4 hour, at 8 10/60 – my father quite well again – Marian quite well cured by her journey to Market Weighton. Dinner about 8 1/2 – came to my room at 10 1/4 – 

Letter from Mrs Barlow ‘Lemm’s hotel, 19 Park Street Grosvenor Square, London’ 3pp. and ends under the seal, and 1st page crossed – dated 30 July, and the 2nd and 4th instant – better for Dr Granville’s advice – has no disease, but her nerves are weakened – England the best climate for her – not to go to Guernsey for a year to come – her nerves to be kept quiet – Mrs Carter in London – providing her husband’s will – will be independent of her friends – Lady Ouseley recommended Lemm’s hotel – capital situation and quiet – about the same price as Webb’s – very much better hotel – last year full of people of rank – Mrs and Miss B- [Barlow] were 3 days at Fulham – the bishop now a bishop of Canterbury much pleased with his little cousin (Jane), and gave her £20 to buy something in commemoration of their 1st meeting – going to Winchester, Mrs Sophia Barlow’s (Miss Louisa Barlow] (Jane’s aunt) suddenly died a very short while ago) – then to the Thistelwaites at Lyndhurst 12 miles from Southampton – 

Not to mention her father she will tell me why when we meet got in to some scrape or other – 

Will go back to Paris for the winter, the end of September, or beginning of October – Lady O- [Ouseley] wishes her to settle in London – sent her carriage every morning, and gave her her box at the opera – but she will not have time to accept her pressing invitation this year – the rank she moves in too high for Mrs B- [Barlow’s] means – very kind letter – if I cannot be in Paris next winter, would like to be there on my aunt’s account – very fine cool day –

[eponymous-rose]

Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role C2E40 (November 6, 2018)

Tonight’s guests are Marisha Ray and Matt Mercer!

Announcements: 

The next episode of All Work No Play will debut on CR’s twitch channel on Friday at 7 PM Pacific. This week, Liam and Sam are building a custom MAME cabinet, along with Felicia Day and Brittany Walloch!

CR is raising money for Operation Supply Drop!

The second art book will be on sale via pre-order on November 12th at 9 AM Pacific!

There will be an exciting announcement for Critters in the EU going up on social media on Monday.

Stats for this week’s episode:

The 200th PC natural 20 happened this episode: Beau’s acrobatics check to land outside the temple.

Beau has used 90 ki points so far. The top 3 uses of those ki points have been:

Flurry of Blows (25)

Stunning Strike (20)

Patient Defense (19)

At the end of the escape, the party had 6 points of exhaustion and 0 spell slots remaining. Marisha: “I had 10 hit points that whole game.” In typical Beau fashion, she wasn’t telling them anything. Matt points out that this is true of Marisha as well.

Fjord is responsible for 30% of all kisses in campaign 2.

Matt: “Here on Critical Role, we learn how words are actually used. And pronounced.”

A question points out that Beau slept with Keg and the party reached level 6, and Fjord slept with Avantika and the party reached level 7. Matt: “I mean, if you guys want to hit max level real fast...”

Beau’s enjoying the pirate life because of the lack of authority. “It’s what she always dreamed of in her fantasy head as a rebellious teen stuck under her super-strict parents. Matt keeps being like, ‘Do you have goals with this character?’ Yeah, to fuck off.”

The details of the, as the question says, “dank water powers”: cast Control Water as a spell once/day without expending a spell slot. He prepped it as a boon based on who got there first.

I’m glad I wasn’t the only one who had the Sonic the Hedgehog drowning music in my head during the underwater fight.

Brian: “I worried about Taliesin more than I did Caduceus. Poor guy. Six characters in this one campaign.” Had the group failed the skill checks, there were opportunities for traps, nets could have been thrown and members of the group could’ve been pulled away by the lizardmen... it could’ve been bad.

Matt figured there was a chance, if Fjord’s underwater grapple on Avantika had succeeded, that he indeed could’ve drowned her, since he could have held his breath much longer than she could, which would have led to a very complicated turn of events. “It caught me off-guard. I wasn’t expecting it from Fjord.”

Brian can’t remember whether Yasha and Beau have actually kissed yet, because he’s seen so much fanart at this point. On the Travis-as-Yasha flirting with Beau moments, Marisha: “I’d say take them with a grain of salt. I’m not going to hold Ashley’s feet to the fire over anything that Travis says puppeting her.” Brian: “I think you should. I think you should make her pay for being gone.” Marisha calls Travis a Shipping Yard. Matt: “It’s that sailor background.” Brian concocts an elaborate scenario where Matt and Travis would have to act out another sex scene. Matt... will think about it.

Gif of the Week: Laura is plotting Travis’ demise.

Matt with a Kiri update: “She’s doing okay in Hupperdook. AS FAR AS YOU KNOW.”

Matt was already exploring the idea of bringing in avatars like the three beasts (as remnants left behind by the gods in Exandrian lore) when worldbuilding. He was building some of these lieutenants up a long time ago. “These three in particular became their own pseudo-gods.” He hadn’t quite figured out the definition of what they were until Travis came along with Fjord’s backstory that slotted in nicely.

Marisha points out that Beau’s relationship with learning is complicated. She’s pretty smart, she’s a seeker of knowledge, but she isn’t comfortable admitting that. “She’s a seeker of knowledge in ways that she’s not fully aware of yet.” Brian calls this “the human heart in conflict with itself” and wonders where she was before and where she’s going to end up. Marisha: “A lot of Beau’s story is about running from something. When you try and buck something, that hard course correction can be worse or just as destructive.” 

Matt: “She’s running from a lot of college debt.” Marisha: “In fact, my arch-villain is Sally Mae. It’s the lich that I’m fighting.” Brian: “I saw the mini out here, yeah.” Matt: “I’ll release the stat block next week, guys.”

Matt thinks Travis would’ve gone for the night with Avantika even if Laura had been there. “There’s that kind of chaotic trickster in him, deep inside.” He wants to make big choices, fundamentally, as he gets more comfortable with the character. Marisha points out how good Laura and Travis are at anticipating and going along with each other’s character choices. Matt: “I was surprised by him going for it, only because my intention of that scene was to find ways to build that power dynamic. It was about trying to get answers, trying to get trust, trying to learn more, and trying to see how much control she can get in those environments. It’s a large part of who she is.” There may have been more to it than that, and Matt’s curious to see how it’ll play out.

Fanart of the Week: the Fjord/Jester kiss.

Matt handles sex scenes based on the comfort level of the group (and himself). While this group is comfortable with there being sex in the game, they’ll definitely go for the fade-to-black approach. “I’m telling a story with people, but not every story needs to be too explicit.” He’s had some bad experiences in the past... Travis’ constitution save was a joke because he hadn’t been at the kind of table that had people who took that seriously and made the rest of the group uncomfortable.

Beau’s still appreciating the power of water from an aesthetic perspective, even after all that’s happened. “It might be more meditative now, having had those experiences.”

Matt on Fluffer-Nutter: “I love players doing non-standard things.”

Matt gets asked how far through the campaign they are. Matt: “I legitimately have no idea." He points out that they’re not even at the level Vox Machina was when they started on-stream yet. They honestly could’ve ended that first campaign at the end of the Conclave Arc, but wanted to continue playing with those characters to level 20. It’s possible that this campaign might feel resolved and a natural ending point might hit before that level. On the other hand, Marisha points out that, 40 episodes in, they’ve only really touched on Fjord’s backstory in particular so far (and so many of their backstories are tied in with the Empire, which is awfully far away now).

Talks Machina After Dark: It’s Sully!!!

Matt gets asked about Sprinkles’ possible fate. Matt: “...spoilers.” Marisha and Dani: “That weasel is so dead.”

Marisha’s dad, a little overwhelmed by what he’s heard of the show so far, calls D&D players “hyper-intelligent creatures from an alien race.” Brian: “That’s just proof he hasn’t met Sam yet.”

Ashley FaceTimes in! She hasn’t had a chance to catch up on the episodes because she’s been working on Thursday nights, but she’s looking forward to it. She confirms that Yasha and Beau haven’t kissed yet, but “there’s still tiiiime.”

[hiddensecrets222]

11/29/19

Things have been going well lately! A week or two ago I worked a nearly 40 hour week and I’m reaping the rewards of it now! Around the same time my husband got sick and had to call out of work. He only missed a day and a half, but we were worried. With my paycheck we were able to pay all of our bills and buy a few Christmas presents! 

Backing up a little. A few months ago, I think in early October, I told my boss that I’m interested in making a management position a long term goal. Since then she’s been teaching me and having me learn new things, so that when she needs me to be a manager, I’ll be ready. I’ve become certified to pierce ears, I can do floor set (I’m not great at it, but the more I do it the easier it will get), and she had me certified to be a key holder! It’s me and one other girl on the list of who will be a manager next, which will happen in a year or two because two of our sales leaders are only here for school and will probably quit or transfer once they graduate. I’m not here for school and I’m in this for the long run! 

To be honest, management has always been a dream of mine. Never one I thought about when day dreaming, but one I would think about when I’d start a new job and excelled at what I was doing. Walmart was the first place I worked, and the first time I wanted to strive for management. The only problem was, I was 17 and... yeah.... That explains it right? Then my anxiety started affecting my ability to work and I figured that sealed the deal on me never becoming a manager. I’ve slowly gotten ahold of my anxiety, but I don’t think I could do it if it weren’t for the place I work and the people there! My boss truly believes in me and it’s helping me not back down from this! 

Fast forward to today. Black Friday! I was expecting to be on the register, and I was gearing up to deal with a never ending line and a few sour mood customers. INSTEAD we were almost completely dead and I was on online orders! There was hardly anyone in the store when I got there, but I guess no one else had bothered to check the online orders, because when I got on there were 18 ship from stores and 3 pick up in stores. I learned online orders when I first started working, about a year ago, but I never got the opportunity to actually do it on my own until recently, so I wasn’t very proficient in doing it. Well today changed that! I had everything done by one (I got there at 10 and probably got started closer to 10:30) and that’s including the 6 more orders that came in while I was working and taking care of customers while I was picking out the merch that needed to be sent! I was supposed to work until 6, but since we were so slow they had to cut me. 

When I got home I still had energy and drive to do something. The biggest problem is I can never focus on one task at a time at home. It’s different at work, because it’s structured differently, but it’s not something I can translate into my homelife.... not yet at least.... Anyway, I was listing off the things that needed to be done and what I wanted to do. I WANTED to put Christmas lights up.... but during summer, when things were not going well and I was stressed and it was hot... My yard got trashy... My kids had refused to pick up any toys, I had filled up kiddie pools for them to play outside and stay cool, we left boxes just laying around because we just never got around to taking them to the trash, and I guess our upstairs neighbors decided, since we were not really keeping up with the yard, that it was okay for them to just drop their trash into our yard. It was a mess, and I guess a stray cat decided to come visit our cat in the widow and spray around our yard, because it smelled BAD! 

At four I went outside and started raking leaves and trash up, filling a plastic tub up with the trash and debri and taking it to the dumpster one load at a time. Any toy that had been left outside went to the trash and I found a few towels and shirts that had fallen from when I was line drying laundry went out as well. I got rid of an old play kitchen that my kids didn’t really play with, moved my gardening bench to a place where I would be in shade while working at it during the summer and organized it, and cleaned off the table and chair and adjusted them so they were usable and looked nice. I finished around 7. I wanted to keep going. I need to get my cooler cleaned up and put in the storage closet, I want to spray down the patio because it still smells like cat pee, and I have a few decorative items that I was to put up, including Christmas lights. But I ran out of daylight and for whatever reason my building’s security lights don’t come on until around one or two in the morning. Also, it’s really wet outside right now. Wednesday night it rained all night, yesterday was cold and cloudy, and today we had mist literally all day! So, nothing has been able to dry off... Tomorrow I might put up half our lights, the ones that will hang off the second story walk way and I’ll put the ones that go on the fence when the ground is dry... 

I’m looking forward to decorating for Christmas this year! Last year I just didn’t have the energy to do it, but this year!!!! Either tomorrow when I get off of work or Sunday I want to put up our tree and everything! 

That’s all I have to say for today, I’ll try to write again soon. 

RvL

[mikumanogi-blog]

2021-08-30 “What are summer memories?” Hayakawa Seira blog [ENG]

Good evening everyone! I’m Hayakawa Seira, I come from Osaka and I’m 21 years old. It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance.

 We’re already in the final stages of August. It’s almost the end of summer isn’t it.

On this day I’ve been wanting to listen to ‘Hitonatsu no Nagasa yori…”

Recently I’ve been addicted to zoning out and listening to music on my veranda at night! The cool air from the air conditioner is nice but the night breeze feels nice too. However, it’s still hot outside so please make sure to take measures against the heat. ☺︎

 Well then, today I’m going to talk a lot about the memories of summer〜!

Thank you for watching our live concert on the 21st and 22nd of August in Fukuoka Marine Messe. Not only to those that came to the venue, but since the concert was live stream there were also many people that were able to have a fun time with us online. It makes me very happy. Everyone, as always, thank you very much ^ ^

The first day was the ceremony commemorating the 10 years since the formation of Nogizaka 46, day two was Momoko-san’s graduation ceremony.

 Unfortunately, last week it was also announced that the date for the Tokyo Dome concert had been postponed. That means that this live concert in Fukuoka will, for the time being, end the Midsummer tour, and that gave me some feelings of nervousness.

Congratulations on your 10-year anniversary Nogizaka46. Thinking about it now, being in this amazing group and thinking about how the senior members built the group’s reputation makes me want to cherish the group even more than before.

I was able to sing these precious songs together with the senior members during the 10th anniversary commemorative ceremony as well as perform in a new song ‘Tanin no Sora ni’. It’s such a bright song and the choreography consists of the choreography of all the title tracks up till now. Dancing it was a lot of fun ^ ^

The final song that we performed ‘Kikkake’ is one of my favorite songs. This is the song that we 11 members of the 4th generation sang during the live concert after overcoming ‘3 nin no Principle’. It’s strange that each time I sing this song the feelings I associate with it change. This time I also felt a different version of ‘Kikkake’. I feel a little more mature than the previous time.

 The second day was Momoko-san’s last live concert. Momoko-san is a very honest and kind person, she often came up to talk to me, smiled at me, just by her being there I felt warm inside. During the 27th single I was glad that I got the opportunity to talk to her even more than I have ever before. It makes me feel sad.

I want to work while cherishing the remaining time we have together.

 This summer tour happened over the course of our 27th single. There was still a lot of things I wasn’t familiar with yet but through the live concerts I was able to face myself and over the course of the single I was able to grow a lot. The feeling of continuing to run forward without giving up is the landscape that everyone I met on the tour help create. It’s all thanks to the fans who continue to support me at all times. Thank you very much.

I’m going to do my best during the 28th single.

 Next, it may be sudden but, the other day on “FNS laugh and music〜 song and laughter festival〜” we performed our 28th single ‘Kimi ni Shikarareta’ for the first time. Did you watch it?? Kakkii was really shining as the center of the song, it’s a fun song.

I love the section of the choreography when Chima-san and I hold hands and spin. She squeezes my hand while smiling at me 〜

I feel like we’re going to start performing it more and more, so I’d be happy if you were to check it out from various camera angles.

Next, I have an announcement regarding the details of the 28th single. This time I’m very pleased to participate in a unit song, ‘Moshimo Kokoro ga Toumei nara”. The unit’s members are 3rd generation members Umezawa Minami-san and Nakamura Reno-san along with Matsuo Miyu-chan and me. It’s a wonderful song so please look forward to it ^ ^

http://dlvr.it/S6PpPY

↑further details can be found here.

 The other day, the 4th generation members performed at @JAM EXPO2020-2021! Thank you to everyone that came to the venue and to everyone that watched online. This time we performed Girls Rule and all of the 4th generation songs. It’s been a long time since we’ve done an in-person festival, it was super fun, and the time just flew by. I was especially glad that we were able to perform ‘Out of the blue’, “Nekojita Chamomile Tea’ in front of an audience since we’ve never performed it in front of audience before. I saw a lot of towels, uchiwa fans and penlights ^ ^

 After the 5th generation members join, I wonder if we 4th generation members will stop appearing at festivals? Thinking about it makes me sad.

 Time will definitely pass every day, so I want to cherish each and every day ^ ^

We did a flirty pose☺︎

☀︎☀︎☀︎☀︎Announcements☀︎☀︎☀︎☀︎

☀︎ Nogizaka46’s 48th single ‘Kimi ni Shikarareta’ will go on sale Wednesday September 22nd.

The 28th single ‘Kimi ni Shikarareta’ will be released next month. I’d be happy if you were to listen to the unit song I’ll be participating in ‘Moshimo Kokoro ga Toumei nara’. I’m pleased to announce that the ballots for the online meet and greet have concluded. I received a lot of applications, thank you very much! I’m very happy! I’m looking forward to talking with everyone ^ ^ You can check the details of the national event information among other information whenever online. Thank you very much.

-TV-

☀︎Nogizaka Star Tanjo! Nippon TV every week on Mondays, the next episode will be at 25:34. It’s a tv show where the 4th generations are challenged to sing hit songs from the Showa and Heisei era. Last week I sang ‘Natsuzakari Hono Jigumi’ with Shoinji-san! How was it?? Unfortunately, it wasn’t recorded on Hulu. I apologize for the inconvenience.

Singing with Shoinji-san was very funny, and the time just flew by ^ ^ I laughed a lot〜

To those that missed the last episode please check it out on Hulu!

https://www.ntv.co.jp/nogistar/

↑details can be found here!

-Radio-

☀︎The Hit Studio Every Wednesday at 24:00 on MBS Radio.

Next week Nishikawa Takanori-san, Takada Shu-san, Hasamatsu Ikumi-san and me will be together. Recently our theme has been trending topics! Of course, the people in Kansai and in other regions can listen to it on ‘radiko’. Please make sure to listen ^ ^

I’ll be waiting for your mail, messages and opinions!

https://cgi.mbs.jp/cgi-bin/form/mail/hitsui.cgi

↑you can send them here!

http://radiko.jp/share/?t=20210826000000&sid=MBS

↑Last week’s broadcast can be found here!

 ☀︎INNOVATION WORLD (KYOCERA TECHNOLOGY COLLEGE) J-Wave, Every week on Fridays around 21:40.

In September the creative director, editor, Hakuhodo’s company executive, and Hakuhodo Kettle’s executive creative director Koichiro Shima will be holding an online future lecture! Please look forward to the first broadcast ^ ^

http://radiko.jp/share/?t=20210827200000&sid=FMJ

↑You can listen to the final week of Tanijiri Makoto-san lecture here on radiko.

☀︎Radirer! Sunday NHK Radio 1, Sunday September 12th between 20:05-22:55

During the Paralympics, Next Radirer! Sunday both Tamura Mayu-chan and me will be appearing. Everyone, let’s have a fun time ^ ^

Radirer! NHK Radio 1 – NHK online

↑I’ll be waiting for a lot of your mail!

-Magazine-

☀︎Platinum FLASH, currently on sale.

This is the first time since becoming 16 members that we’ve got a picture together on the front cover! I’m very grateful. Unexpectedly, it’s a special feature that extends 100 pages. I’d be happy if you were to check it out. There is a special appendix with a 4th generation member clear file attached! Please check it out.

I was paired with my beloved Mayu-tan for some pictures ^ ^ please check it out.

☀︎Young Gangan, on sale Tuesday September 3rd

This year I was once again able to have a gravure published in Young Gangan! Tsutsui Ayame-chan is on the front cover ^ ^ Please make sure to check it out.

 !!!! The unreliable Q&A!!!!

·         What’s the number one thing that has made you say ‘grrr’ recently?

→After washing my black colored western clothes with my other clothes the black color bled into my white pillow cover, t-shirts, socks and they all became blackish pink. Grrrr….

 Unreliable

·         Which senior member do you want to get closer to?

→On the new song I’m positioned close to Kitano Hinako-san and so I want to take advantage of this opportunity and try to talk to her

Unreliable

·         Can you tell us a behind the scenes story of the Nogizaka Fractal photoshoot!

→During the photoshoot last winter, we took it in what seemed to be a warehouse and it was so cold we were shivering! So nostalgic (o^^o) winter seems as if it’s almost upon us.

Cold or hot, in the end both are good aren’t they.

 Unreliable

·         It’s almost the end of summer and so what are some of the summer memories you had from this year Serra-chan?

→In my work I went to some extremely rural places! It was super fun and felt like a summer vacation ^ ^I’ll tell you more!  

·         During this summer heat I find it difficult to sleep and so I want to know at least one thing you do during you night routine \( ¨̮ )/

→I always have the light dimmed down and once I do that I’m able to fall asleep instantly ^ ^ If I work late at night I find it hard to sleep and so I understand how you feel!

 Unreliable

 The end!

As always thank you for all your comments. Last time I received a lot of Happy Birthday messages at the made me feel happy. Thank you ^ ^

 I talked about a lot of things this time and so I’ll talk about yesterday’s final meet and greet next time ^ ^

As always, thank you.

 Thank you for taking your time to read this blog to the very end.

See you soon!

2021.8.30 Serra

https://blog.nogizaka46.com/seira.hayakawa/2021/08/062927.php

[your-dietician]

World's Fastest Property Price Surge Since Financial Crisis Sparks Bidding Wars

New Post has been published on https://depression-md.com/worlds-fastest-property-price-surge-since-financial-crisis-sparks-bidding-wars/

World's Fastest Property Price Surge Since Financial Crisis Sparks Bidding Wars

Around the world, property markets are going bananas. 

From the U.S. to the U.K. to China, housing is riding an extended boom. Global valuations are soaring at the fastest pace since 2006, according to Knight Frank, with annual price increases in double digits. Frothy markets are flashing the kind of bubble warnings that haven’t been seen since the run up to the financial crisis, a Bloomberg Economics analysis shows.

On the ground, outrageous stories are rife, with desperate buyers promising to name their first-born after sellers and derelict buildings selling for mansion prices.

This property in Sydney’s Kensington suburb sold for A$4.7 million after a bidding war.

Source: NG Farah

The drivers for the frenzy are remarkably consistent: cheap mortgages, a post-pandemic desire for more space, newly remote workers taking city cash to regional locations — and, crucially, a pervasive fear that if you don’t buy now you may never be able to.

As prices mount, so do the risks for both individuals and society. Even without an outright crash, big mortgages mean borrowers are vulnerable if interest rates rise, have less disposable income to spend in the wider economy and are more likely to retire in debt. For younger people, buying property becomes increasingly difficult, further widening intergenerational inequality.

While regulators are starting to get nervous, there are few signs of meaningful action in most countries. They expect the market will start to cool on its own, arguing that a decade-long focus on higher lending standards combined with the prospect of low interest rates for an extended period means there is no obvious trigger for a crash. Much of the activity is also being driven by owner-occupiers rather than investors, who typically don’t all head for the door at once if prices start to drop.

So for now, expect the wild stories to keep coming. Here are a few of the most startling ones we’ve come across. 

Canada

As a real estate agent, Kristin Cripps knew the market was hot in Barrie. Prices in the fast-growing city about an hour and a half’s drive north of Toronto have been pushed skyward as buyers hunt for larger homes or vacation properties on scenic Lake Simcoe.

Yet nothing prepared her for selling her one-bedroom vacation home. It’s not a remarkable property—Cripps says it looks like “a small box” from the outside—but within 24 hours of listing, 192 showings had been booked. And that was only the start.

Homes for sale in Barrie, where prices have been pushed skyward.

Photographer: Galit Rodan/Bloomberg

Throughout the following three days, bidders and agents kept showing up without an appointment, tramping through the snow to bang on the door while Cripps conducted virtual viewings inside.

The property’s narrow driveway became so congested, no fewer than six cars ended up in a ditch and needed to be towed out. At the height of the bidding war, Cripps estimates she was getting about 75 emails every 20 minutes, and didn’t sleep more than two or three hours a night as she tried to keep up with all the inquiries. In the end she received 71 offers. The property, listed for C$399,000 ($328,665), sold for almost twice that sum — C$777,777.

“You know when you see videos of Black Friday and everyone rushes in and they’re grabbing stuff and they’re having fights in the store and pulling people’s hair and there’s security and they’re grabbing people? That’s what it felt like,” Cripps said.

“Everyone was just so hot and bothered to get a property.”

Australia

It didn’t have a kitchen or a toilet or power, let alone flooring or paint. Yet the semi-derelict home about seven kilometers (4.4 miles) south of Sydney’s city center sold anyway—for A$4.7 million ($3.5 million), after a heated bidding war. 

It’s just one more jaw-dropping sale in the harborside city, where more than half the houses sold this year fetched at least A$1 million and quarterly gains to May were the highest in more than 30 years. House prices rose by A$1,263 a day in May.

Prospective buyers place bids during the auction of a house in Sydney’s Paddington area in February. 

Photographer: Brent Lewin/Bloomberg

“I’ve been involved in this industry 25 years and seen nothing like it,” selling agent Joe Recep of NG Farah Real Estate said. “We had 30,000 enquiries on the property in four weeks—from UAE [United Arab Emirates], Dubai, America, New Zealand and all the Asian countries.”

It’s the top end of the market that’s really motoring. Cashed-up buyers returning from overseas and wealthy locals kept in the country by Australia’s closed borders are prepared to pay eye-watering amounts for a desirable lifestyle.

Sydney’s Top-Tier Home Prices Soar

Values rise fastest for the most expensive properties

Sources: Corelogic Inc., Bloomberg

D’Leanne Lewis, a principal at real estate agency Laing+Simmons in the tony eastern suburb of Double Bay, sold homes worth a record A$60 million in a single day in May—more than she had ever previously sold in a month.

Among the five houses Lewis sold on her banner day was an eight-bedroom, nine-bathroom property in Bellevue Hill, an expensive area in the city’s east. It was snapped up pre-auction for $25 million—almost 40% above its advertised price—and more than triple the $7 million it sold for just five years ago. While palatial, it doesn’t have the waterfront views or access you’d normally expect in Sydney at that price. 

“It’s crazy but does make sense when you think about it,” says Lewis. “Being locked down in a place like Sydney does not feel so dismal when you compare it to the rest of the world. People are looking for a safe haven.”

U.S. 

In the wealthy enclave of Greenwich, Connecticut, you can’t even bank on being able to see a property before you put in an offer. 

Shut out of appointments to view a just-listed $1.55 million house, one set of homebuyers decided to make a cash offer above asking price anyway. Their only condition was to be allowed into the house once before signing the contract. 

“It was accepted as the highest and best bid, and they’d never been in the house,” said Mark Pruner, a broker with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices in Greenwich. “There were all these other people lined up for appointments in 15-minute intervals for two days.”

New York’s Divided Property Market

Prices in Manhattan keep falling as bidding wars erupt in the outer boroughs.

Source: StreetEasy, Bloomberg, Q1 2021 data, YOY % change

U.S. home prices jumped the most in 30 years in April, with even more dramatic increases in many suburban and rural areas. At the peak of the pandemic, Greenwich attracted exiles from New York City — and they’ve kept coming ever since. Signed contracts for single-family homes more than tripled in May from a year earlier to 165, according to appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. and brokerage Douglas Elliman Real Estate. And that’s after a first quarter when the median price of home sales surged 31% to $2.24 million. 

In Manhattan, sales have picked up in recent months too, but that’s largely thanks to the prospect of discounted prices. By contrast, buyers pushing deep into the outer boroughs in search of more spacious homes are facing bidding wars.

Things are even hotter in more remote areas of the U.S. Take Boise, Idaho, a picturesque city of roughly 225,000 set against the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. An influx of buyers from California and other more expensive states has sent the market wild: Prices at the start of June were up 42% from a year earlier, according to brokerage Redfin. In April, eight in 10 offers made by its customers faced bidding wars.

An influx of buyers has sent the Boise market wild.

Photographer: Jeremy Erickson/Bloomberg

Desperate buyers are doing whatever they can to secure a deal — including promising not to actually move in. Shauna Pendleton, a local Redfin broker, said one vendor negotiated the right to stay in the property for five months on a peppercorn rent until their new home was built. 

“Sellers know they’ve got power in this market, they know they hold the cards and that they pretty much make the rules,” Pendleton said. 

U.K. 

Buying a U.K. property right now is nerve-jangling. Almost a quarter of homes sell within a week, according to estate agents Hamptons International, many before they even hit the property portals.

The intense competition is leaving would-be-buyers like Alyson Nash, 63, and her husband out in the cold. They sold their family farmhouse last year and moved into rented accommodation so they could hunt commitment-free for a property near Guildford, a commuter hub in England’s southeast.

Property listings in Guildford, U.K. Almost a quarter of homes sell within a week, according to estate agents.

Photographer: Luke MacGregor/Bloomberg

Eight months later, after making offers for three homes at their asking prices of at least 2.5 million pounds ($3.5 million), they’re no closer.

“I had never in my life anticipated it being this difficult,” Nash said. “There’s very little on the market and what there is, is being chased down by too many people.”

U.K. House Prices Are Rising Faster Outside London

The capital city isn’t attracting buyers the way it once did

Source: Acadata

The booming market has led to the resurgence of a practice known as gazumping. Property deals in the U.K. aren’t legally binding until contracts are formally exchanged, which can take months after an offer has been accepted—particularly when mortgage lenders and lawyers are struggling with high volumes.

At any point in this period sellers can accept a different offer. That’s what happened to Charlotte Howard, 46, in February. Four months later, as glacial proceedings on another property left her terrified of being gazumped again, she found herself contacting the seller on Facebook to reassure them of her interest.

“I’m feeling just a bit broken and a bit bruised,” Howard said. “Things can go wrong still.”

Fortunately for Howard, she and the seller exchanged on June 11th. 

China

Reining in property speculation is a key objective of the Chinese government. But even they are struggling. While in much of the world the pandemic spurred a dash to the suburbs and beyond, buyers in China piled into top-tier cities where the best jobs and schools can still be found. 

New apartments under construction in Shenzhen, where prices are rising faster than anywhere else in China.

Photographer: Yan Cong/Bloomberg

Existing home prices in those cities rose 10.8% in the year to May, despite crackdowns on loopholes such as fake divorces, designed to bypass rules on how many properties a family can own.

In the tech hub of Shenzhen, an apartment costs 43.5 times a resident’s average salary, according to the research institute of real estate firm E-House (China) Enterprise Holdings Ltd. That’s not far behind Hong Kong, the world’s least affordable city. With Shenzhen prices rising faster than anywhere else in China, the list of obstacles facing would-be buyers just keeps getting longer—and more arbitrary. 

China’s Home Price Gains Slow, But Don’t Stop

Increases continue despite tough cooling measures

Source: China’s National Bureau of Statistics

At one new development in the city’s west, interested parties had to temporarily transfer 1 million yuan ($157,000) and upload personal credit reports before they could even make a bid.

Many of those who managed to do so—not easy, with queues of bidders snaking around the block at bank closing time—still didn’t even get their offers considered.

Under pressure from the local housing regulator to prioritize residents, local developer Coaster Group decided to vet applicants on how long they’d paid taxes in the city. The 2,114 successful applications all had more than 23 years of tax records.

That meant renewed disappointment for many, including Jerry Huang, 29,  who has 14 years of Shenzhen tax history. It’s the third time that non-monetary requirements have prevented him from even making a bid. 

“It looks like I have to shelve the purchase plan for a long time,” Huang said. “There are so many people competing I’m not sure I have a winning chance.” 

  — With assistance by Emily Cadman, Ari Altstedter, Olivia Konotey-Ahulu, Charlie Wells, Emma Dong, Nabila Ahmed, Prashant Gopal, and Oshrat Carmiel

(Updates Sydney house price chart to include June data.)

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[orbemnews]

Anemic Jobs Report Reaffirms Pandemic’s Grip on Economy The American economic recovery showed new signs of stalling on Friday as government data underscored the pandemic’s brutal damage to the job market. U.S. employers added 49,000 jobs in January, the Labor Department said, dashing hopes that the new year would bring immediate relief. The private sector added just 6,000 jobs, barely enough to register against the millions of positions lost during the pandemic. The weak showing was tallied amid a fresh effort in Washington to provide a big infusion of aid to foster a recovery and the data will almost certainly bolster the Democrats’ argument for a robust stimulus package. “It’s very clear our economy is still in trouble,” President Biden said of the latest reading on the labor market. Looking to strengthen the recovery, Mr. Biden and congressional Democrats have been pressing for a $1.9 trillion relief measure. By approving budget resolutions in both chambers, Congress cleared the way on Friday to pursue final passage of the package on party-line votes, if needed, within weeks. Some Republicans have asserted that a smaller package would suffice, and others have said it is too soon for another round of aid. But far from showing a job market on the mend, the report on Friday provided evidence of a metastasizing crisis. The limited January gains followed an outright setback in December, when the economy lost 227,000 jobs, the first net decline since April and a bigger drop than had been initially reported. And while the December losses were concentrated in a few pandemic-exposed sectors, the weakness in January was broad-based. Manufacturers, retailers and transportation companies all cut jobs, indicating that the economic damage is spreading. The unemployment rate fell to 6.3 percent, from 6.7 percent. But the decline came partly because hundreds of thousands of people left the labor force, a sign that the downturn could leave lasting scars. A year earlier, the unemployment rate had been 3.5 percent, a 50-year low. The economy still has nearly 10 million fewer jobs than it did before the pandemic. “There’s very little to celebrate in this report,” said Julia Pollak, a labor economist for the employment site ZipRecruiter. “Almost every measure that I was hoping would point in the right direction disappointed.” Still, in returning to growth, even if marginal, the economy avoided a second consecutive month of job losses, a prospect that some economists had feared given the one-two punch of rising coronavirus cases and waning federal aid. Both those forces are now reversing: Coronavirus cases are falling in much of the country, and the $900 billion relief package passed by Congress in December is bringing a measure of help to households and businesses. Indeed, despite the grim start to the new year, many forecasters predict that the economy will strengthen from here on. In addition to the December stimulus, the vaccination push, though slower than hoped, is paving the way for wider reopenings even as coronavirus mutations around the world make the rollout more urgent. “It is a positive sign that we got over those speed bumps and the wheels haven’t completely come off the car,” said Nick Bunker, head of research for the job site Indeed. For Hand & Stone, a national chain of massage studios and facial spas, the winter resurgence of the pandemic was a setback after a monthslong process of reopening. California and other states reimposed restrictions that shut down many spas entirely and forced others to cut back services. And the loss of foot traffic cut back on gift card sales, usually big source of business during the holidays. Updated  Feb. 5, 2021, 4:14 p.m. ET “Reticence to go out and engage in the economy and be in stores was a huge negative,” said Todd Leff, the company’s chief executive. But with the gradual decline in Covid-19 cases allowing its spas to reopen, business has begun to bounce back. And Mr. Leff is optimistic about widespread vaccination easing customers’ fears. “I do think we’re going to see a lot of that pent-up demand come back,” he said. The concern is that for many households and businesses, the rebound could come too late. The share of people working or looking for work remained depressed in January relative to its pre-pandemic level. That suggests more weakness in the labor market than is implied by the slowly declining unemployment rate, which tracks only people who are actively applying for work. Continued shutdowns and health concerns could be keeping would-be job seekers on the sidelines. Another concern is the rising number of Americans experiencing long-term unemployment — a growing scourge that could threaten not just individual workers but the economic recovery as a whole. More than four million people in January had been out of work for more than six months, the standard definition of long-term unemployment. That was up slightly from December and almost four times the number before the pandemic began. The long-term jobless now account for nearly 40 percent of all unemployed workers, the biggest share since the aftermath of the recession of 2007-9. That doesn’t count people who have given up looking for jobs or who can’t work because of child care or other responsibilities. Economic research has shown that when people are unemployed for extended periods, they have a harder time finding jobs. That — combined with businesses that have likewise faced a prolonged hibernation — could leave lasting economic harm. “The longer a recession lasts, the more there can be permanent scarring,” said Beth Ann Bovino, the chief U.S. economist for S&P Global Ratings Services. “For those people who are long-term unemployed, those businesses that need to reopen, it takes time. It’s not like switching on and off the light bulb.” Jenna Fortino, 26, was laid off from her job at the travel site Expedia in October and has moved out of her apartment in Washington, D.C., and back in with her parents in New Jersey. She has lost count of the jobs she has applied for but is optimistic that something will work out soon. “Hopefully, you know, in the next two weeks something will come out of what I’m going through,” she said. “I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. It’s defeating.” The job market has pockets of strength. Industries less dependent on workers’ in-person interactions with both colleagues and customers, such as professional services and finance, continued to add jobs in January. That bifurcated recovery could widen racial and gender disparities that have been increased by the pandemic. Black and Hispanic workers, and especially Black and Hispanic women, have born the brunt of job losses in low-wage sectors such as travel and dining, which could now be among the last to fully reopen. “This is affecting the most vulnerable groups disproportionately,” said Kweilin Ellingrud, a senior partner at the consulting firm McKinsey and co-author of a recent report predicting a slow recovery for the hardest-hit workers. Nonetheless, there are signs of better times ahead in the job market. Employers are guardedly optimistic that the economy will reopen more fully as more Americans receive vaccines and the pandemic recedes. Many people are still nervous about returning to work because of health and safety concerns or issues with child care but are prepared to rejoin the labor force when conditions improve. Sarah Hierholzer, 23, worked as a host at an improv theater in Chicago until March, when it temporarily laid off everyone in response to the pandemic. In June, she said, she was told the theater was closing permanently. Ms. Hierholzer said she had applied for more than a hundred jobs, including a position at the grocery store Trader Joe’s. But other than a brief stint with the Chicago Board of Elections in the fall, she had had no luck. Recently, however, she found a temporary job doing data entry at a title company. “It is definitely just such a relief to have employment,” she said, “even if it’s not necessarily a dream job.” Jeanna Smialek contributed reporting. Source link Orbem News #Anemic #Economy #Grip #jobs #Pandemics #Reaffirms #Report

[multipleservicelisting]

A New Orleans Mardi Gras With a Different Sort of Mask

NEW ORLEANS — Last January, Polly Watts estimated how much alcohol she would need to make it through Mardi Gras at her bar, Avenue Pub — and then ordered considerably more than that. It’s a practice she and other bar owners here use to lock in savings that many liquor companies offer in the early months of the year.

“We had an Armageddon-level liquor stock,” Ms. Watts said. “It usually lasts us a few months.”

New Orleans has again entered Mardi Gras season — the big finale, Fat Tuesday, is Feb. 16 — and Ms. Watts, like many bar owners, has yet to sell much of the alcohol she purchased a year ago, just before the pandemic halted the city’s famous nightlife as the high season for festivals and tourism was set to begin. She doesn’t expect to go through her overstock of vodka, whiskey and beer anytime soon, even though Avenue Pub is on St. Charles Avenue, a main route for most of the large Mardi Gras parades.

That’s because this year’s official parades have been canceled. The balls, parties and other events that make up “the largest free party on earth” violate Covid-19 restrictions, which early this month were raised in New Orleans to levels not seen since the start of the pandemic, when the city struggled with one of the highest coronavirus caseloads anywhere.

Mardi Gras 2020 is remembered locally as the last gasp of pre-Covid normalcy, as well as an accelerant of the virus’s spread. So few people here expect this year’s edition to be anything like normal. It can’t be.

Infection rates in the city are at near-record levels. Current restrictions will be re-examined at the end of the month, said Sarah Babcock, director of public policy and emergency preparedness for the New Orleans Health Department. “What activities are going to be allowed on Mardi Gras is really dependent on what New Orleanians do today,” Ms. Babcock said. “But the Mardi Gras that the nation thinks of, the picture they have, is not going to happen.”

Still, Mardi Gras, a holiday with Christian (and pagan) underpinnings, can’t be canceled. “People are going to find a way to celebrate,” Ms. Babcock said. And in the absence of traditional programming, the focal point is likely to be the bars that showcase the music and drinking cultures so central to the city’s economy, identity and allure.

These businesses, which have been as damaged by the pandemic as any sector of the city’s life, face a holiday that embodies New Orleans’s spirit — the capacity for joy, the sense of community, the embrace of art and excess — in a year when no one knows what form the celebration will take, at a time when summoning that spirit could cause harm.

The bar scene here, which not even Hurricane Katrina fully shut down, has been brought to its knees by the pandemic, but it hasn’t been snuffed out. As current regulations forbid bars without food permits to serve indoors, the activity has largely moved outside, aided by relatively mild winters and laws that allow public consumption of alcohol. (Bars with food permits can serve indoors at 25 percent capacity, but can sell alcohol only with food. Mask-wearing and social distancing have been required in New Orleans since early in the pandemic.)

Serving the tourists who are bound to join costumed locals on the streets may amount to little more than selling to-go drinks and food for customers to carry as they stroll. At a news conference on Monday, Mayor LaToya Cantrell welcomed visitors for Mardi Gras while commanding them to obey pandemic restrictions, “so our residents and our folks at the forefront of hospitality are safe.”

Tom Thayer, the owner of d.b.a., a music club in the Faubourg Marigny neighborhood, is considering recruiting musicians to play outside his club on Frenchmen Street, a live-music corridor. His decision will depend on what happens with infection rates.

“Having done almost no business since last March, it’s very tempting to try and grab the money,” said Mr. Thayer, 54, “but not at the risk of prolonging this virus.”

Ms. Watts, 55, plans to decorate the Avenue Pub to resemble a Mardi Gras float, as many locals have already done to their homes. “I just want something that will make people smile when they drive by, even if they don’t stop,” she said.

The ban on close public contact made necessary by the pandemic has rendered it all but impossible for the city’s famed drinking businesses — from its historic music clubs and neighborhood beer joints to its vintage and modern temples of exacting cocktails — to be their true selves.

The 11 p.m. closing time in place for much of the pandemic has been jarring, not least for veteran bartenders like Chris Hannah, an owner of Jewel of the South, a bar and restaurant in the French Quarter.

Mr. Hannah is one of the most respected cocktail makers in a city where bartenders enjoy outsize reputations. After 20 years of bartending, he found himself home alone for nights on end as the severity of the pandemic came into focus. Increasingly worried about his health, he started eating raw garlic, in an effort to bolster his immune system, and became obsessive about yoga.

He also spent a lot of time at Jewel of the South in the months before its July reopening, tending to the pepper plants, marigolds and herbs he’d planted to create “a victory garden, for when this is over.”

“I was extremely worried about getting this disease, because of my age and race,” said Mr. Hannah, who is 47 and Black. “Usually at the end of the night, I always think I can have one more spirit while I’m reading. Now it’s echinacea tea.”

Stinging losses to New Orleans’s drinking life include the sale of the Saturn Bar and the permanent closings of Lost Love Lounge, Prime Example and the original Johnny White’s Bar, all idiosyncratic neighborhood institutions. Also for sale is the Golden Lantern, a French Quarter bar known as “the home of Southern Decadence,” an annual festival put on by the gay and lesbian community. Storied music venues like Tipitina’s, the Maple Leaf, the Howlin’ Wolf and Snug Harbor have been silenced, though some have turned to streaming live shows online.

Kermit Ruffins, the owner of Kermit’s Treme Mother-in-Law Lounge, said he hopes Mardi Gras will provide bars a much-needed financial lift. At the same time, he’d like revelers to take note of how much better the city was when the bars were at full strength, and what would be lost if the permanent closings turn, as many here fear, from a trickle to a stream.

“I was a kid who grew up in bars in the Lower Ninth Ward,” said Mr. Ruffins, 56, a prominent jazz trumpet player, singer and band leader. He got his start as a musician playing in local bars as a teenager, something he continued doing several times a week, until last spring. The loss of income from performing is one of the reasons he started a GoFundMe page to keep the Mother-in-Law afloat.

“The number of musicians in New Orleans that play in bars for a living is overwhelming,” he said. “It’s really scary right now.”

Mr. Ruffins apologized publicly for violating Covid-19 restrictions, like requiring masks and forbidding dancing — lapses that prompted to the city to temporarily close his bar in September. He said he takes safety seriously, going so far as to close on Fridays and Saturdays, to keep from having to turn away friends from the back patio on those otherwise busy nights.

But Mr. Ruffins and others also contend that bars are being policed more closely for violations than other businesses, and that the authorities are stricter with local patrons than they are with tourists on Bourbon Street. Kelder Summers, an owner of Whiskey & Sticks, a Scotch and cigar bar, worries about the damage that could cause Black neighborhoods.

“Bars are an integral part of wealth-building in our community,” said Ms. Summers, 54, who is also a local radio host. “Historically, to have a little speakeasy was an easy way for Black people to enter into the business realm.”

In an emailed statement, a City Hall spokesman wrote that “Code Enforcement teams have largely achieved compliance by verbal warning, rather than shut-downs and citations,” and that “no area has been unfairly or disproportionately targeted.”

Mark Schettler, general manager at Bar Tonique, a craft-cocktail bar in the French Quarter, says bars are reflexively treated as less-than-respectable businesses because of their association with vice. That perception contributes to customers’ poor treatment of bar employees, he said.

“Bars are 102 years past the repeal of Prohibition,” said Mr. Schettler, an activist for hospitality workers’ rights. “But that sense of criminalization is not gone.”

Enforcement is not the only issue that has put bar owners at odds with Mayor Cantrell. Early in the pandemic, the city allowed businesses licensed as restaurants to stay open in a limited capacity, while bars were shut down entirely. (Ms. Babcock, of the Health Department, said the city was following recommendations from the federal government.)

D.J. Johnson, who opened the New Orleans Art Bar on St. Claude Avenue last February, is still sore over what he sees as a lack of government support for bars in those early months. Still, he knows the real enemy is the virus.

“Nobody wants to be in an empty bar,” Mr. Johnson said. “But during Covid, you don’t want to be in a crowded bar, either. It’s a real conundrum.”

Mr. Johnson, 40, entered into a bar scene that is vastly different from what it was in the early 2000s, when quality cocktails and wine were hard to find outside restaurants. When Mr. Hannah moved to New Orleans in 2004, he saw an opportunity to turn Arnaud’s French 75, the bar inside a historic French-Creole restaurant, into a destination for craft cocktails that had been lost to history.

The city’s bar scene blossomed after Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005. The opening of Cure, in 2007, helped bring the modern craft-cocktail movement to New Orleans, as did the growing popularity of Tales of the Cocktail, an annual festival that draws guests from around the world.

Cure’s founder, Neal Bodenheimer, 44, is a partner in two other local businesses, including Vals, a bar and taqueria opened in July on Freret Street, an Uptown corridor that Cure helped transform. All of his places straddle the line between restaurant and bar — the reverse of the phenomenon in which local chefs and restaurateurs open gastro pubs and wine bars.

Mr. Bodenheimer’s businesses have ample outdoor seating, a blessing during a health crisis that has allowed him to rehire more employees. He has added a mandatory 20 percent tip to each check.

“It’s really important to realize that these people are putting their health and safety on the line,” he said. “They should have their income guaranteed.”

The essence of the city’s bar culture, New Orleanians are apt to argue, is found not among the tourists on Bourbon Street but in the small bars that dot its residential neighborhoods. The Mother-in-Law is a good example, as are the Kingpin, in Uptown, or Markey’s Bar, in Bywater — beer bars that serve as home base for locals during Mardi Gras, and that regulars treat like second homes the rest of the year.

T. Cole Newton joined a new generation of owners trying to preserve New Orleans neighborhood bars in 2010, when he took over an existing bar in Mid-City to open 12 Mile Limit.

“Any reasonable business person who wasn’t a starry-eyed 20-something would have tore it down,” said Mr. Newton, 37, who believes modern zoning laws make it unlikely that bars like his will be replaced if they close. “I feel like I’m carrying on the legacy of a neighborhood bar in a time when that’s increasingly important.”

Snake and Jake’s Christmas Club Lounge is an archetype of the form. It’s partly hidden between two homes on a dark, deeply cracked street a short walk, and a world removed, from the lush Tulane University campus.

Andrew Ledford has been working at Snake and Jake’s, which opened in 1994, for more than 20 years. Covid restrictions have forced him to step from behind the bar to usher guests through the narrow barroom to the rear patio. A bucket filled with oyster shells holds the back door open.

Mr. Ledford, 41, said he expects to serve out-of-towners during Mardi Gras. He’ll encourage them to return after the pandemic wanes, to see what the bar — and New Orleans — is “really like.”

“I’m grateful to be open,” he said. “But we’re a shadow of our self.”

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[ancientbrit]

Natters # 15 &16   06/09/2015

Subject: MI MG Natters #15 &16, June 9th 2015 Date: June 9, 2015 11:40:00 PM PDT  Friday's clinic, two weeks ago, put us back in the numbers again. A lovely day with just Sam and me in attendance. We had a sudden rush arriving after 5:00 pm - our closing time, but we were able to get them all answered to the clients satisfaction - thank goodness.  One lady from Israel (our second ) had been given some spurious information about growing conditions in Washington State, on which we were glad to set her straight. Her only growing experience to date had all taken place in Israel, which is obviously a wee bit different to Mercer Island. But I was able to reassure her, that yes indeed, Cyclamen do very well here, at which she was delighted. We talked about becoming a MG and she was much taken with the thought and she will be checking back with us at the Farmers Market, due to start on the 7th of June. One gentleman coming out of Rite Aid with an armful of plants stopped to ask if there was anything that would get rid of powdery mildew on zucchini. He had it last year and wasn't able to do anything for it. In fact there were a lot of clients who had experienced the same problem which also effected most of the cucurbits outside. At the time I could only offer the word that a solution of sodium bicarbonate is sometimes effective, although it wasn't very strong.  Then when I was visiting Bellevue Nursery this week, I saw an item labelled 'Green Cure', which uses  Potassium bicarbonate combined with a spreader sticker to enhance the fungicidal properties. It apparently kills powdery mildew & other plant diseases on contact with up to two weeks of residual protection. The literature lists 25 different diseases that are controlled and describes how it does it. On the literature, among those giving enthusiastic support to 'Green Cure' is an Advanced Master Gardener in Brookfield, CT. I am growing pumpkins and zucchini this year, so I am going to try it for myself. What a nice thought to find something like this that actually works. It is odorless, mixes & fully dissolves in water to spray, does not accumulate in the soil, is compatible with many beneficial insects and fruits & vegetables can be harvested an hour after spraying. Jean's favorite tree, Styrax japonica, now in its sixth year, is about twelve feet high and I find to my surprise that it is hugely fragrant. I didn't know that! The scent is fantastic and the whole tree is alive with bees all day - what a bonus. Give it another year or two and I will be able to remove some of the lower branches and it will be giving the shade it was planted to produce. A beautiful tree! This is Clem-a-tis "Romantika - a new one from Estonia I bought earlier this year and in bloom last Saturday for the first time. Although the color here looks great, it doesn't really do justice to the way it really looks. The main color is almost black and that lighter color bar along the center of the tepal is a deep ruby-red with a shimmer that makes it looks like velvet which has been caught here - quite incredible. A beautiful flower. ( I am sorry that processing this way does not allow the production of pictures) My Cardiocrinums are having a strange year. One I planted two years back shot up to about 7 feet high and is now in bloom.  One of three 'pups' from my original, started to move a little after the big brother next door, but it has barely reached three feet high and is also in flower - not exactly a giganteum by any stretch of the imagination. I not sure exactly what I have here, but I will be keeping an eye on it. Looking at them today I had a sniff of their lovely perfume, but there was something else on the air which didn't appeal at all. It didn't smell at all like my compost pile, which only has a vegetable smell. This was quite rank - and then I almost trod on a dead Mole! It was just laid out on my footpath and I have no idea who I have to thank for this nice gesture, whether it was a gift from Pickle or the new cat next door or dropped by a crow - which doesn't seem too likely. Whatever, one must be grateful for small mercies - and I am. This has all taken longer to assemble than I had thought, so I will combine the last Rite Aid clinic with the first Farmers Market clinic on Sunday. Our last Friday at Rite Aid clinic this year was sort of crowded with four of us - Karin, Carin, Janet and myself, but it was a good day. When we weren't satisfying clients we were able to talk about various gardening topics and other fascinating subjects. We find frequently that some RA costumers assume that we are 'with' RA and we get drawn into helping them make choices of plants and I don't feel badly about this - it is about the only way we can really say how we appreciate RA's allowing us to store our stuff there all year - apart from our donating cookies, etc to their lunchroom, which is really appreciated. We always try to place one or three plants from RA's display on our desk to attract our clients. But all of a sudden there appeared a pot of 'Snow on the Mountain' aka 'Bishops Weed'. Karin had placed it there as she knows I cannot stand the stuff. She is the only person I know who has used it and never regretted the choice. She had it planted between two concrete strips along her driveway and it filled the space in nothing flat. I wouldn't trust it not to insinuate itself under the concrete into the rest of the garden, but as Karin was moving she wasn't too worried. I am still amazed that this thug is allowed on the market as it is almost impossible to remove once it gets a grip. The plain green version is Ground Elder and in England, it is a legal requirement that it be removed. Its reputation precedes it and house sales have been known to fall through when this plant is seen growing in the garden. At the Plant Sale, there had been numerous flats of a particular plant that looked okay when first divided and potted up. However, just before the actual sale, when plants were being checked, 28 of these plants had to be dumped because they were infested with Bishops Weed! There is a plant that secretes an oil in its roots which kills this darned weed. It is called Tagetes minuta and is so named for the tiny flowers it produces. The plant itself grows to about 3 feet high and is planted in and around the infestation. If left, it becomes apparent that it is working, as a roughly circular patch of dying plant appears around the Tagetes and when you check, although the weed stems are still there, they are hollow and very dead. This last Sunday was our first Farmer's Market of the season and I was joined by Joan & Janet. The weather was lovely and we were under a canopy with a constant breeze blowing through. It also seems that we have been rewarded with a permanent canopy location - right at the end of the street on the north side, with our backs to the parking lot. 'Couldn't be better, so I hope that Patty maintains our permanency there.   It is always a pleasant clinic here as we get clients returning from previous years - it is quite like old home week. One couple returned to tell me that the ivy clearance that we had recommended last year was almost completed and they were interested in growing all sorts of things from cuttings etc. I mentioned air layering in which they became very interested, so I will be bringing them some information next week. They also had grown a type of African gourd last year which they brought to show us. It had been emptied and dried and is used as a musical instrument - rather impressive as they know how to play it. I told them about the small, different shaped gourds I used to grow in England. When they were ripe they were dried, varnished and polished and Jean used to display them in a fruit bowl. They looked quite attractive. A couple of friends came to visit one weekend and they were keen gardeners but not too knowledgeable. When my friend's wife went into work the following Monday, she told her friends about their visit and about her friend 'who grows turds, which he dries and polishes and his wife displays in a fruit bowl!'  She has never been allowed to live this down! Then on Monday Becca had arranged for a load of MGs to visit Pat Roome and take a tour of her garden, which I found to be fantastic. Her veggie garden had two stands of peas, one of them about seven feet high and covered in plump pods.  Her tomatoes were up to about five feet high with fruit about 2" in diameter. Apparently, Pat had sown the seed in February and planted them out in April when she judged it unlikely that there would be any more frost - 'really got that right! The thing that really impressed me however was the number of plants she had which are the same sort of thing that I grow - just way bigger. For instance, I have a Pineapple broom which I grew from seed I took from a mature bush in Yorkshire, at the RHS gardens there.  Mine is about seven feet high - it has spent a few years in a pot which slowed it's growth somewhat! Pat's is taller than her house by several feet and is covered in blooms. I have a Chilean fire tree I bought at the F & G show, which is now five feet high. Pat's again is probably about 35 feet high with the topmost branches covered in scarlet blossoms, being visited by loads of hummers. And so it went, but how nice to see what I might expect to get in a few years' time.  One plant that she has which appealed to everybody was a perennial Nasturtium. It has a neat arrangement of five leaflets arranged somewhat like an Akebia and it was growing up the side of a large evergreen hedge. At the top it turned over into the sun and was covered in scarlet blossoms. Pat had several rooted cuttings in her greenhouse and they all were picked up by some of the MGs. Unfortunately, we had to scoot a little before the tour came to an end as we had carpooled and Bev, who was driving, had another appointment, but the whole trip was well worth it and quite honestly I don't know how Pat manages it all. I am writing to thank her for her generosity in giving her time to us all. This first Farmers Market clinic was not as frenetic as last year when Bev and I literally didn't stop the whole day, clocking about 75 clients. This year we took 40 which I thought was a nice score. People were out in force and the Market looks all set to be a constant success. Hopefully, we can increase the numbers when we get the new sandwich boards in place. We had quite a lot of people who stopped by but didn't know we would be there apparently. I am not sure why they wouldn't know as we have been there constantly since it started, but there you go. Your fearless leader, Gordon