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geffbob · 4 years

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First short story I’m proud of

I was given a mission just this morning. While I am only A rank, this doesn’t change the fact that some of my missions can be dreadfully dull. See, when you start out, you’re put into C rank automatically. C ranks are given basic training, basic equipment and told “make a name for yourselves”. And while I did do just that, I didn’t think that I would make it all the way to A rank. I have killed an uncountable amount of monsters, I have donated a lot of treasure to the guild, I have fought and paid and watched quite a few good men and women die over the years, but being here in A rank makes me feel like I’ve accomplished something. And yet, whenever I get told “hey, your help is needed to beat a group of pigspawn over yonder” I always ask why a group of C ranks can’t do it. And the answer is always the same; “they’re too strong for C rank, too many for B rank, and it’s a lot cheaper to pay 1 A rank to do it”. Cheapskates.

So, I get up, get dressed, grab my equipment and get on my way. Kill a few lesser beings, receive a measly payment and go back to the guild common room to talk to a few of my friends.

The missions as of late haven’t been anything special, it’s mostly just observation and escort. However, over the past few days I’ve had to deal with quite a few farmers trying to move their equipment up north as quite a few southern settlements have become locations for a lot of magical activity. First it was the rift gates opening in Charonsville, goblin rampages in Hamlettown, and insect storms on the elven borders. While these seem mostly unrelated, recent intel has tracked these occurrences to a sect that’s working in the aera. Bunch of crazy fucking bastards.

A lot of morons do this, the amount of magic our world uses attracts a lot of attention. Attention mostly from higher beings. Whether these beings are malevolent or benevolent is a chance that not many people want to take, and so quite a few of them get scared and try to pray to the “bad ones” so they don’t get fucking slaughtered when the gods finally get bored of observing and want to come down to intervene. Not understanding that if you’re fucking praying to gods, they’re going to notice you first. And if they’re the type of gods that want to consume any and all magical life, then you’ve just become the first to die. The best way to stop this from happening, is to stop making them notice you in the first place, let the mage’s guild deal with them, I don’t want to think too hard about being devoured by a 500m long asshole with tendrils for eyes and whose shriek causes all your organs to fall out of your body. Just don’t let it come to this planet while I’m still living on it.

So, these recent attacks have becoming stronger and stronger. Recently there was a livestock transmutation, where a bunch of sheep grew 3 times in size and turned into “Sheekem” as the elves call them. They’re basically just ware-sheep. Big soft bastards that tore through a village and ripped about 8 poor villagers to shreds. A mage had to come in to stop them, as the local guard had no chance with their armour, and even he had some difficulty. The best way to stop sheekem is to pacify them, revert the transmutation so to say, but if they’re being constantly transmutated from another source, then there’s nothing you can do. So, this mage asshole thought it would be a great idea to call a storm down and zap the 3 into oblivion, and while that worked at first, the idiot forgot about the magical fires that start because of it. Completely obliterating the town hall and severely burning a few more people. So, while he without doubt saved the village, he didn’t realise how badly he cocked up until a bunch of angry townsfolk came out of the hall holding unconscious crispy children in their arms. Poor bastard is still rebuilding the village today and he probably will be doing so for the next few weeks. Mages doing manual labour, shocking I know.

These attacks were traced to one source. The aforementioned sept in the aera has been stirring up trouble. They’re trying to operate in secret, but thankfully the guild employs a lot of experts in demonology just for these occasions. All the trouble that’s been happening over these months are side effects of rituals being taken place, which is apparently what is happening according to this demonologist that I’m escorting. I had to look after the defenceless sod while I walk down south, and they would not stop talking.

“…So, the main thing to take away from this is that most of the people in the area have been evacuated. Which I think isn’t the best idea because it honestly causes a lot of panic and worry, which exactly what we’re trying to stop y’know?” -she looks up longingly at the clouds- “But at the same time, I feel like many people are glad to get away from violence. You humans really like living in your little settlements and I know you can’t stand to stay away from them for more than a few days at a time, but then you go ahead and go on vacations for months, what’s up with that?” -She turns to me quizzically- “Why do you do that? Why not just live in the vacation site? It’s a lot more fun that way because you can just…”

Oh. And she’s an elf. About 1.5m tall, still 50cm shorter than me, but I am wearing armoured boots while she looks like she’s dressed for the library.

She looks like a typical elf for the most part. Long golden hair, a green hairband, flower behind her ear which apparently doubles as a pen, she’s thin, wearing a white dress with light green leaf patterns on it. A brown belt with a set of tools that I have no idea what they could do. Long thin arms with blue painted nails, holding a brown leather strap book which she occasionally writes in by telekinetically using her flower/pen when she sees something that interests her. She’s wearing shorts that go down to her knees and look to be made of some elven material which I hear is “super soft” and “better than anything you humans can make”. And like most elves, she’s barefoot.

“Do all elves talk this much?” – I bitterly say. I’m already tired of her and it’s been 20 minutes

“Not all elves, in fact, some of us don’t talk at all. Like, they only open our mouths to sing. But singing isn’t uncommon with us elves, I mean, our language involves singing, but what I mean is we like to sing songs instead of sing conversations, y’know?” -she turns her head and looks at me- “Like how our conversations are ‘spoken’ by singing, but songs are different because they involve ‘MORE’ singing y’know? I mean, you’d have to be an elf to understand it because I doubt you would get it, you’re only human after all…”

Please make it stop

“…Anyway, the point is, you have to be extra careful when you head into this area, I know you think you’re sooooo cool by being A class and everything, but you’re not S class, so you can’t get cocky.” - She stops me and jumps in front of me, touching my chest- “You’re just here for observation, you come back, report what you found and then you might be able to go with the search and destroy team that will take out the sept. Don’t do anything stupid okay? Because I’ve read your file, and you really like using that big sword of yours to cut anything that you don’t really like.” -she finally noticed how I’m looking at her, and then glancing at my sword- “In fact, I don’t really like how you’re looking at me, can you stop please? Like, I know you’re probably a racist and everything, but you could really stand to be a bit nicer to me considering you’re with me for the next few hours…”

Please god

“How old are you?” -I ask

“I’m technically a teenager but I mean a teenager in your years is slightly different in my years because obviously we elves live like 10 times longer than you humans so I suppose I would say I am about…”

“how OLD are you?” -I interrupt

“56” -she replies, after a shocked pause

“So, you’re older than me?” “Yes, but also no”

“What do you mean?” “Well, I’m still a teenager in my culture, but I’m double your age in yours. So, you can decide how you want to talk to me”

“where did you learn common speech?” “I went to an all-girls high school in one of you human settlements, I studied with a group of teenagers and they taught me everything about how to speak”

Taught common tongue by teenage girls. Figures.

I look up. I wonder if it would be more trouble to kill myself or her

“So, explain to me again how these things are related, and briefly this time as I wasn’t paying attention last time” – I say bluntly

She turns to me, shocked and clearly angry “Bjar def forden góp human, you could at least pretend to pay attention to me”

I don’t know what she said, I don’t think I want to know

“Look. The first sign that it’s a sept was the rift gates. The sept has been forcefully creating gates to other places. If anyone starts praying to the gods, then the gods send their spawn into the world to ‘clear it out’ so to say, which in your terms means killing and consuming everything in the area until there’s a sizable space for the demon to walk through.” -she stops and looks at her book- “So, whatever created these gates, let a bunch of monsters out into this world which we need to find”

“Don’t rift gates appear randomly though?” “Yes, they do. Which is why we didn’t think anything of it at first. But then the other things that happened caused me to wonder if the gates weren’t random after all”

“How do you mean?” -I ask

“Well all the spawn from the original gate had a red star on the forehead. This could be just coincidence, but there’s a particularly annoying demon that lives within a star cluster close to this planet. It could be trying to reach this planet though a portal being created by this sept”

Crazy ass fucking cultists. I swear

“So, what about the goblins? They’re from this world”

“Yes, but they don’t usually frenzy en masse like this, goblins usually live underground and attack travellers that walk by. These ones were organized, picky, sadistic. They were clearly influenced by something.” “The sept?” “Most probably. We managed to evacuate the town in time, but the ones that were late were ripped apart and consumed. Goblins don’t usually eat human flesh, but these ones were either starving or possessed”

Charming. I didn’t hear anything about anyone getting eaten

“Insect swarms?” I ask

“Side effect. Look here” -she turns to a page in her book

“I don’t speak Elven”

“Can you do anything apart from grunt and complain? I was about to translate. You can look at the pretty pictures in order to entertain your monkey brain”

Never mind, I think killing myself would be faster

“Upon the formation of statues to Gar’Doth’Gun, the daemon we think it is, locusts in the area will begin to enter a frenzy as the residual influence of his greatness will enter their minds and possess their bodies, causing a metamorphosis, increasing their size and aggression. They will sting and strike until they are dead”

“That explains those poor elven wankers” “More humans were attacked than elves there. Thankfully no deaths, but some really need psychological help, you humans really have weak minds y’know? No elves needed help after that” “Us humans aren’t born with the ability to shoot flames out of our fingers like you elves” “Well maybe that’s because you’re inferior”

“Hey! we can use magic too” “Nowhere near as good as us”

I feel like I’m going to scream

“The Sheekem in the area were done differently. When you chant Gar’s name for a long period of time, he will try to enter your body. We’re fairly certain that the sept were in the area and trying to get him to enter, however, something went wrong. Either they chanted his name wrong, or were more likely, interrupted. The influence spread to the neighbouring farmlands and he possessed 3 sheep there. The cultists needed to escape and so the distraction of them decimating the city worked wonders”

“So why are these all linked?” “Here” – she says, turning to another page of the book

“What is that?” I say, a bit worried now “A map of this area. Take a look.” – she points to a point – “rifts” – she points to another and draws a line from the original location – “goblins” – another – “locusts” – another “sheep” - finally down south – “our next destination”

It’s a pentagon. The lines form a perfect pentagon.

She draws a star inside the pentagon, each point matching up perfectly with a point.

“inverted star, we’re headed to their final ritual. We need to stop them soon”

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elastigirl72 · 5 years

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Day 24 and 25

71km to go

Day 24, 25 and 26: Trikala>Lamia>Thiva

Thiva: 18:43

The sun came out! Three days ago, I gifted my overshoes to Kastoria. Two days, Trikala’s Airbnb owner now has a beautiful pair of threadbare, elasticity long gone Castelli leg warmers, and has no idea of the significance of this gift. This is a cyclist’s version of a striptease...which can also and was performed on the move in the last few days: the jacket, the arm warmers and then a few miles later, the leg warmers.

It was the first morning I left without having consider any layering choices. I felt an awful lot lighter after being charged €8 for two cappuccinos, and I found a bike shop who pumped up my tyres and sent me on my way with a new inner tube after my puncture set bounced off somewhere in the previous day’s ride. Maybe Hades horrors got THAT close. Enjoy, you savages!

Greece has really surprised me, in a multitude of ways. Firstly, it’s people. I know a few Greeks. In fact, Dmitri who is married to Katherine and currently looking after my house and dog, Nyla (how dogs should be) is from Corinthe. He and the other Greek seem lovely. However, here, if I’m totally honest, on the whole, appear to have a serious attitude problem or a chip on their shoulder. You’ll get what you need from them, but blimey, they won’t make it easy! And on the whole, everything they do for you seems to be a massive chore; they tend to look decidedly pissed off! Yet, despite this, I quite like them. It’s like they don’t really give a hoot what anyone else thinks about them. You’ll do things their way or you’ll go without. Is it because of the long and deep Greek tragedies and history that floods its many mountains and plains? I thought that Italians were expressive, which they are. But Greeks don’t want to be expressive but if you push them, you’ll probably see the wrong kind of expressive!

Take for example, the owner of the hotel I’m in right now. The pool is not in use, it’s in the middle of nowhere and whilst it’s clean, so is a travelodge or Premier Inn, but none typically have atmosphere and are extremely functional. Bed, check in, restaurant and bar if you’re lucky. As I rested for the first time by the lovely looking pool on this trip, the owner came over to speak to me declaring his position as if I should congratulate him. And then proceeded to try and get me to cancel my booking.com booking, drive up to the cash point with him in order to pay cash and get a €10 discount for the most expensive and overpriced hotel for the whole 25 days to date. After telling him I’d think it over for while, and the hassle of getting in a car to go to get cash, and concerned that cancelling the booking after the cancellation period had passed with the possibility of double payment and no recourse, I told him it’s not worth it. I’d also be charged a currency fee for the withdrawal (I haven’t mentioned it, but a few days ago, in supposed trusted company, I was set up and pickpocketed. That in itself was genius how it was staged. Luckily they only got away with coins from 8 different countries and my international card. But that has made the cash process a little tricky). Mr owner, who clearly thought very highly of his negotiation skills, stating Booking.com make billions, and me being a seasoned traveller must play the system all the time. Am I missing a trick here? Maybe, but after much insistence after his persistence, he got the message. But this is my experience of Greeks.

Moving to the cycling. I’d been warned by said Greeks that Greek drivers were about the worst you could find. Be careful, I was warned. The roads are very busy and Greeks don’t deal with cyclists at all well. This really set me up to see Greece as a country I needed to get through to get to Athens and the end of my cross-continent adventure. The truth is I have been totally amazed. It has been, day after day, the best cycling I’ve done anywhere in Europe, including Spain and France. Not only are the drivers considerate, stop and wait at intersections for the cyclist to pass, they indicate, pull out, wait, and many toot and wave encouragement. The roads are empty, generally in great condition and all around, the scenery continuously draws you in. The culture is rich, untouched. I saw my first living snake on one road, the same road I saw many geckos between Kastoria and Trikala. The sides of the roads are dressed with millions of poppies, Aloe Vera, cacti, hemp, olive trees. I’m yet to reach Athens but I haven’t once felt unsafe due to traffic. Wild dogs, yes. I’d rather not repeat those.

Both Lamia and Kastoria were gems on an unplanned route. I don’t feel like seeing Thiva as I’m full of hay fever and possibly a cold, so am uninspired. It does have an interesting past though and was an important as a city and in Greek mythology. But I’m very happy here in my apartment away from everywhere: the calm before the storm, returning to relative reality tomorrow.

I don’t know why this area for cyclists seems to be so undiscovered, but I’m so glad I made the decision to come inland. The coast will undoubtedly be much busier than this incredible, mountainous and flat landscape from Albania to Athens. I couldn’t be happier on my bike than I’ve been for the past four days.😊. The balance of vistas for this trip have been perfect: mainland, coast and now mountains. That pretty much covers it! I later hear from Mr Owner as he reluctantly demanded my card payment as he saw me sat on my balcony because he wasn’t there in the morning, that 30 Hungarian cyclists were arriving the next day. For them it’s a short flight away. They’re obviously in on this secret nirvana that is Greece.

The days have rolled by and here I am, one ride away from Athens. I’m still focused, but also excited. 71km till I pack up my bike, having dipped my feet and maybe even swum in the Aegean in the last few miles of my Odyssey...surely that is classed as a transcontinental bike ride? 😃.

Packing away my winter gear, my shorts and t-shirt for the last time, throwing away all the bits and pieces I no longer need, and counting the hours...one more sleep and Athens...

26 days have past

24 days of cycling (excluding the abandoned day after 10 miles)

11 countries

6 currencies

3414km recorded cycling (2133 miles)

27,345m ascent (climbing)

1 backpack and frame bag - weight 4kg

I train ride (not included in mileage) to avoid snow

Two ferries - English Channel and 500m at Montenegro

Crossed the Severn, English Channel, past the Mediterranean And Adriatic Seas...

Days in order of awesomeness:

1 Librazhd>Kastoria

2 Lamia>Thiva

3 Trikala>Lamia

4 Senj>Zadar

5 Shkoder>Librazhd

The four least enjoyable:

1 Como>Garda - weather and traffic

2 Bellinzona>Como - weather and traffic

3 Venice>Trieste - weather

4 Neum>Herceg Novi - traffic

Favourite people by country:

Albanian

Bosnian

Montenegrin

Croatian

Italian

English

French

Greek

Swiss

Best hospitality: Albania then Bosnia

Best meal: Albania then Greece

Best weather: Greece

Biggest surprise country: equal Albania and Greece

Favourite city: Split

Best hotel: Calais and Albania

Least favourite city: Saint Quentin

Hardest day: Venice - abandoning for the day and the following day prospect of another abandoned day

Favourite person: the elderly cafe owner in Albania

Best vista: over Lake Ohrie, Albania

12 May: 0656 - Thiva

The day has arrived, and still, with only 71km to go, I’m not 100% certain I’ll make it to Athens! I guess I will believe it and relax once I walk into the hotel, and ask for my bike box. Having received an overweight charge relating to my box apparently weighing 67kg heavier than the maximum for my shipping cost (which is 27kg and having weighed it before booking, know it’s actually 19kg), I am expecting to find an adult size stowaway inside. So the very first thing I will be doing on receipt is asking a member of staff to hold my phone and video me opening it as evidence to send to UPS, who will otherwise pursue an additional £146 shipping cost. I tell you this as I don’t want you to fall into the same cunning trap.

A fellow cyclist, Steve, currently pedalling through France, shared this lovely insight with me after I’d shared the view of the Aegean Sea af Lamia’s castle. Around 10k from me, I could have by rights, pedalled over, dipped my toe in the water and got aboard the nearest train to Athens. But didn’t! Steve shared this: In Xenophon’s Anabasis when the 10,000 Greek soldiers saw the Mediterranean after there march out of Persia they shouted for joy Thálatta! Thálatta! The sea The Sea! They knew they were home.

I haven’t got that excited yet, but I’ve placed my Sainsbury’s order...Istanbul tomorrow...by plane 😊

The bells have chimed outside, I’ve eaten two cereal bars, a banana and half a pint of milk for breakfast and I will be hauling my knackered, ageing body on to the bike just one more time here, for up to 3 hours...and then it’s done...hopefully! See you in Athens 😃

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spellyjane · 6 years

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Splashed, Mashed and Dashed on to the podium at Kona!

THAT'S ME, 3RD W45-49 IN THE 🌏

After my 1st go at this race in 2017, I was a little torn. Part of me was happy to tick IRONMAN World Championships off my list and never put myself through that sufferfest again. I hated it, it was hot, the run was horrible, and I found the layout of the transition, spectator areas and general logistics to be claustrophobic ordeals. However, on the evening after that 2017 race, I saw athletes heading home from the award ceremony with their ukeme bowls and I felt a strong pang of want. My race had not gone to plan, I knew I could do better and I wondered where a good day at Kona would put me. After a few more weeks of reflection and recovery I decided that yes, I needed to give it another go.

I started to write my thank yous at the end of this report, but I realised that I may lose a few of you along the way and this is important. Thank you to my biggest fan and supporter, Simon. I love chasing him up hills on bikes, holding his wheel all these years had made me a better person and without his encouragement and support I just could not do this. My coach, Rick Schopp, gosh, I feel like I say this all the time, but he pushes me where I don’t always want to go and he must find it hard to sleep with all the pins I stick into that voodoo doll, (I have taken them all out now.) I thank him especially for pushing me, for listening, for calling me out when I am being a slack ass and for the awesome giggle when he hears my results. Thank you to my team at INTENT, the messages before and after were off the charts! I know a whole bunch were tracking me all day and I was sending my thanks every time I hit a timing mat! Thanks to my Dad for coming all the way from Sydney to cheer and sherpa, that was pretty awesome. I don’t get to see him enough, to have him there was really special.

DAD, READY TO CAPTURE IT ALL

So I found myself at the starting line of this year’s race in quite a different headspace. I had 2 more humbling Ironman experiences under my belt, a crazy amount of fitness gained from lots of training in our new 1750m above sea level abode and some practiced heat coping strategies. I was going for a top 10 finish and a course PR regardless of the weather. My race plan was full of lessons learned from last year, paces, watts, calories, salt and heat coping strategies. I hoped I could pull it all off but I knew that at some stage I would run out of script and just have to ad lib.

7:20am - BOOM! I am swimming. My mission was 8:35 per 500m. This would give me about 1 min faster than last year. I got kicked and pummelled last year so I positioned a little left to avoid the chaos. It worked, it was busy but not as bad. My watch buzzes every 500m, the glance at my splits was telling me we had a bit of current assist on the way out. So when we made the turn I just dug in and pushed hard, trying not to lose too much of the time I had gained on the way out. I kept asking myself if I was going hard enough and could I push any harder, I kept reminding myself to stay on the gas all the way to the finish. I reached the sand and scrambled up the stairs, already thinking about how I was going to execute T1. Thank goodness for the volunteers helping out here as I was almost wiped out by a wave that came crashing over the stairs as I was trying to read the time on my watch. Woo hoo, 1:06:40, 3 minutes faster than last year.

OK, NOW FOR A LITTLE BIKE RIDE

I was handed my T1 bag and ran into the change tent. With the help of a volunteer I was on my way in moments. I was jogging along at the pace of the pack as we made our way to our bikes, I turned on some hussle when I remembered that I was racing! I saw the lamp pole I’d scoped out to landmark my aisle earlier that morning and made the turn, I found my bike no problems. I had opted to clip my shoes in pre race, so by the time I reached the mount line my socks were super soggy from the saturated carpeting. My feet were never dry all day, I’d post a pic of the result but I don’t want to freak y’all out too much. 😱 The mount line was a bit of a zoo but I made it out in one piece! 3:13 about 1:30 faster than last year.

My first 15 minutes of riding were at an intensity (IF) of .78, oops! I was aiming for .66, my goodness, this is rookie territory! Clearly I was a bit amped and buzzed with the good swim start. I lost a bottle of electrolytes/nutrition on a bump at the 5k mark but did not sweat it. I had a back up in my special needs bag located up in Hawi at about the 100k mark. I was taking on cals and salt every 30 mins, I was taking water bottles and refilling my built in hydration bag and keeping a spare bottle on the back cage. I had some additional electrolytes to add to the water while I was on the go as well. It was not as hot as last year, my data recorded an average temp of 32C with a high of 37C, last year I recorded and average temp of 36C and a high of 39C. We seemed to have a tiny bit of cross head wind on the way out to the Hawi turn around. I started to pay attention to race numbers. Last year I did not realise that we would not have our age groups tattooed to our calves and I didn’t realise that the race numbers were grouped in ages. I was on to it this year and I knew the range I was racing. At this point, I was doing all the passing, I don’t recall being passed by anyone in my age group at all on the bike.

PROBABLY DOING 500W HERE 😜

I was pushing a few extra watts than I planned in order to keep out of draft zones and it did not seem to be hurting me. I struggled last year to hold my watts and ended up with an IF of .64 and in Boulder earlier this year same thing happened and I went .62, I put this down to the heat. I have managed .69 in other races but felt that that was too aggressive for Kona, knowing how brutal that run can be, so I felt that .66 was a good stretch for me this year. But on the day I felt like I was holding way too much back at those watts so I let loose a bit. Besides, I was kind of enjoying myself. The climb up to Hawi felt insignificant and I was well on my way to smashing out a great bike. I saw some folks holding out an Aussie flag right at the U turn, crikey, that shit slays me, I felt quite emotional.

The ride back to Kailua was good. I was not cracking. I pushed on, crunching splits in my head and feeling really good. I started to ease up a little and spin at a little higher cadence to get ready to run. I came in at 5:10:23, a big course PR, and unbeknownst to me at the time this 4th fastest bike split had me sitting in 3rd place.

I handed my bike off to a volunteer and ran into the change tent. Helped by another volunteer I threw my shoes on, grabbed my race belt (all loaded up with my gels, hat, number and emergency Immodium) and took off. I missed the sun screen, not on purpose, I just did not see any. Ugh, this sport is turning me into a melanoma snack bar. I got out on the run with a T2 of 3:02, again, saved another 1:30 on last year.

I had loaded my pocket pre race with a couple of nylon panty hose cut into long sock lengths. At the 1st aid station I filled one up with ice and tied it around the back of my neck, it dripped icy cold water down my back for about 30 min. It was awesome. I was using some new gels, loaded with salt and a lower but isotonic sugar concentration. They go down so so easy and have as much salt as the salt tablets I was taking on the bike. I had zero gut issues this year. I calculated that last year I spent about 7 minutes in the toilets throughout the race and spent a good deal of time in a lot of discomfort. This year no problems at all!

BEFORE IT GOT TOO UGLY 😂

I was holding a conservative pace, dying a little on the hills but pulling it back up on the flats and descents. I was not able to see the race numbers of the girls I was passing and being passed by. I was told by a friend at about the 3km point that I was in 3rd. I was passed by Elisabetta (she went on to 2nd place) just before the halfway point so I wondered if that put me in 4th. I came up upon my friend Jeff, we reached an aid station together, I grabbed a water and dumped it down his back, I can't remember what I said, but he wished me well and I pushed on. Another friend at about 21k told me that I was in 3rd and I was shocked. I was not sure where the other girls were but dang I knew they would be coming. I was remembering that feeling of seeing those ukeme bowls awarded to the top 5 and I began to think I could really get one. The toughest part of the race was the climb up out of the energy lab, the sun on my back was awful and I was tired. I let my pace fall to a level that apparently had my husband and my coach, who were tracking me via the timing mats, having heart attacks. What I did not know, but what they could see was that I was being ferociously stalked by the gal in 4th place, she was gaining on me at at rate that had Simon and Rick on the edge of their seats. I am glad I was oblivious to the actual threat. I made it back up onto the Queen K and just held onto the pace as best I could. I told myself to NOT slow down. The last 8k were tough, I was scared of every foot fall behind me. That kept me moving for sure. I made that last soul and body draining climb of the run, passing the crazy awesome peeps at the Base Performance tent before making that divine turn down Palani Drive. I bounded down that hill smiling my head off. I still had 2k to go but I was so close and the hard part of the course was done. Now it was time to wave to my Dad and friends, smile big and bring it home. I was passed by a gal in the finish chute, and I wondered if I had just lost 3rd but I did not care, I knew I had one of those bowls. I nearly choked when I saw my time too. Whaaat! A 3:42:01 marathon gave me a finish time of 10:05:19. So much to be happy about!

WHAT DID I JUST DO!?

A bit of post race asthma had me into the med tent. Ugh, thanks to Christian and Meredith for helping me out. I was still in the med tent when I turned my phone on to dozens of messages. The 1st one I opened was from Simon, it said, “3rd place, woo hoo!” I lost it, ugly happy crying, “I am ok!” I wheezed at the poor alarmed medic who did not know what to make of my sudden heaving outburst.

So that was the race, I have left out so many details, but to sum up, I feel like I had one of my most perfect races. With hindsight, I feel like I could have pushed a tiny bit harder on the bike, but I could not have know that till after. I wished I could have run under 3:40, I know in hindsight that I could not, I really did not leave anything out there. That 2 mins would not have made a difference in my placing, I just wished I could have held onto my pace. That gives me something to work on and I am fine with that. I will call this an Ironman PR, (my 10:04 in Cozumel does not count because of the massive current assisted short swim course.) I am not sure that I want to right now... but I think I can still wring a little more out of this body. I really want to go under 10 hrs! As for placing 3rd in the women’s 45-49 AG, (IN THE WORLD - tee hee) I am really happy, happy that I was able to pull together my best performance on a day when it really mattered. I absolutely know that I had some fierce competition out there, I know their A games and so I know that their days did not all go to plan, so I remain inspired, vigilant and on my toes.

Kudos to many many athletes on the day for pushing through the heat and distance to achieve some great results. My very good friend Jeff, had his 1st go at Kona after many years in the sport.

PRE RACE SELFIE WITH JEFF

This was a dream day he never thought he would have, his joy, emotion and pride at being there was written all over him! He a great day, he was beaten up a little by the run but his smoking bike made up for it and his overall time was where he said he hoped it would be. I bet he goes back for another crack. Kudos to my other Jeff, (I have a couple,) Jeff B took about 50 mins off his 2017 time. Kudos to Lindsey my friend the human fish who gutted out a run after tearing something important in her hip in T2. I mean she really gutted it out, she was black and blue but she still pulled off a very tidy performance.

The awards ceremony - ahh, where to begin without sounding like a real cow. Sorry, Ironman, this was not awesome. Charging my Dad $55 to eat dinner off a paper plate with a bottle of water at an out door folding table with a plastic table cloth made me a little mad. It was the only way to get into the awards so what can you do?

I made the most of my time on the stage, soaking it in, congratulating Janette, Elisabetta, Linda and Tanja with whom I shared the podium. I just wish my Dad had a telephoto lens to capture the moment a little more clearly. (I guess they assume we are all happy to buy the Finishers Pix.)

Family and friends were restricted to a barricade well away from the stage and off to the side to accommodate the VIP area and TV camera scaffold. VIPs were standing up and walking around with backs to the stage making it difficult for us common Age Groupers to get a picture of one of the MOST AWESOME MOMENTS OF OUR LIVES. I really could go on, but I will put it all in my survey.

One last heart felt thank you to the IRONMAN volunteers, I met people who flew in from all over the world to volunteer (including Meredith and Scott from BC Canada!) and thank you to the locals who embraced the chaos and gave up their time to help put this show on. I had many wonderful experiences with many volunteers, I am so grateful for all the help and cheers!

#racewithintent #triathlon #iamspecialized #kona #ironman #ironmanworldchampionships

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cindysmakeupfactory · 6 years

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Larry Nassar Victims As Well As Michigan State Reach $500M Claim Negotiation.

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The top quality as well as significance of the product itself defeats just what affiliate program powers the sales process. 2) Pay Per Each Effectiveness: In this kind of method, the vendor pays the associate only when his recommendation converts into a motion that is each time the consumer is really bye the something in the vendor's.|Our global associate advertising network encourages advertisers as well as authors of all dimensions to expand their services online. Concerning participating in the ebay.com Partner Network along with various other associate programs. After selecting as much as 2-3 products, discover its needs whether its a hot item or otherwise and also if individuals are browsing online for this. 1. As opposed to Profit Engine bonus of a couple of people, by using Affiliate Marketing a seller could have a sales force of thousands or more.|Associate advertising and marketing is one branch of the web earnings tree. Easy SEO (often): Videos show up in 55% of keyword searches on Google 82% of these videos are from YouTube. I discover they will certainly advertise my products over others much more conveniently. The hardest aspect of affiliate advertising is recognizing the best ways to begin and also what are the most effective products and also companies to work with; to make sure that's exactly just what I'm going to educate you how you can do.|You may have listened to or been involved in a recurring revenue company opportunity somehow. An affiliate marketing expert has to pre-sell the products. So if you really want to promote numerous affiliate programs in your site, see to it that they jive with the style as well as topic of the remainder of the web content on your specific niche. 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Online merchants find associate marketing highly advantageous because of the fact that it provides little to no risk both for the seller and the 'associate.' The means it works is that the associate gains a sort of compensation or repaired amount based upon the number of sales the associate offers the seller, either with on-line links on the affiliates internet site - or through e-mail, blogs, rss feeds as well as several various other kinds of on-line communication. We provide free access per affiliate to the data the operators asked for, in addition to summaries of what they are seeking so although it's discouraging to see affiliates that do not obtain it, it's inevitably their company model and their decision regarding whether or not they intend to engage with compliance or not. In order to succeed in associate marketing you'll have to choose a product group to concentrate on, discover your audience, build an internet site or blog site audiences could rely on, develop LOTS of web content, and promote your material as well as your product, as well as with the right experimentation, you could be well on your means to receiving those payment checks from satisfied brand names made by referring pleased consumers. The suggestion behind it is that you advertise other individuals's products, frequently with an affiliate network, gaining a compensation if individuals actually wind up getting thanks to your advertising and marketing. With an on the internet affiliate advertising company the vendor ships whatever to your customers for you, so you are not needed to stock any stock at all, which represents a big cost conserving for your organisation. Online marketing membership websites with a month-to-month subscription likewise do well for constructing an easy income. While looking for organisation chances online if you come across an associate program worth offering after that all you would need to do to begin is to sign up as an associate, which is usually complimentary in most cases. Rich Affiliate University supplies a vast array of Marketing Educating tutorials as well as videos that will certainly aid any type of marketer build an effective online business. When it comes to affiliate marketing and enhance your income 10 layer, envision if there was some wonderful resource that could approve your every dream! As the globe significantly decided to spend their time and money online, marketing professionals began creating methods to leverage this interaction channel, as well as chances for website proprietors to companion began. ● Smart Contracts- Besides avoiding author scams, platforms like RefToken prevent clients from cannot pay their affiliates by creating contracts that enforce themselves. 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(to some degree) Anyone could do associate marketing as well as supplement their income to some extent.

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travelcenter-uk · 3 years

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The 10 Hidden Boutique Hotels in Sri Lanka

Life is either a daring adventure… or a rejuvenating escape in one of the top boutique hotels in Sri Lanka!

Boutique hotels in Sri Lanka have their uniqueness starting from the rich influences of the Colonial architecture to the extreme touch of local designs!

So, if you are hoping to visit Sri Lanka in 2021 (or any day, I’d say), you have got to know that this tiny Island is full of such unique boutique hotels. Choosing one from the unending list, is definitely going to be a hassle.

To help you save your time and money, I have picked ten out of the many top boutique hotels in Sri Lanka, from different parts of the country, for you to choose from.

If you want more assistance for a hassle-free holiday planning to Sri Lanka, you can contact our premium travel experts at Travel Center! It’s the best way for you to get all the information about holidays in Sri Lanka, and…. to grab some of the best deals and offers! (Grab it when it’s available!!!)

Now, to the boutiques!

Let’s start with one of the best boutique hotels in Sri Lanka for the adventurous and exotic travellers;

Wild Coast Lodge (Yala)

After knowing Yala for its wildlife (especially leopards, of course), it’s going to be a tad bit difficult for you to believe in Wild Coast Lodge! It’s like a hidden gem in the exotic greenery of Sri Lanka that we were lucky enough to find for you.

The ‘Wild Coast Lodge’ is a cluster of cocoons (literally what they look like!) tents. They are located in the most scenic edge of the Yala National Park, strapped to the southern coastline.

What Makes the Wild Coast Lodge Unique from other Boutique Hotels in Sri Lanka?

It is more like camping than just resting in one of the boutique hotels in Sri Lanka!

Why I say so is because of how these cocoon-shaped tents are built!

I mean, where exactly would you find such luxury tents built amidst elephants and monkeys by daytime and leopards in the night?!

Apart from exploring the exotic surroundings of the Wild Coast Edge, you can also get some curated here, like;

Explore the wilderness with Safari game drives, with the assistance of ‘a passionate ranger team.’

Enjoy a rural bike exploration.

Check out their official website on more things-to-do as you book a stay at the Wild Coast Lodge in 2021!

Safari-ing in Sri Lanka

If you are more of a beach person than a jungle person, then check out the next boutique hotel!

Karpaha Sands (Trincomalee)

You cannot visit Sri Lanka and not have a ‘salt in my hair, a camera full of memories’ experience!

After the must-visit Arugam Bay in the list of beaches in Sri Lanka, comes Pasikudah and Kalkudah. So, on your visit to the Pasikudah, you’ll find the Karpaha Sands boutique hotel!

It’s like a total ‘Robinson Crusoe’ experience, except, you need not build your tent.

You’ll find a stretch of luxury boutique hotels lined up on the beach, creating a complete luxury holiday vibe. They’re structured in the most traditional ways, stunning enough to attract visitors.

During your stay in the Karpaha Sands, you’ll be able to;

Explore many vibrant Hindu temples and local markets in the neighbouring Tamil villages.

Get yourself adorned with traditional henna tattoos from a local henna artist.

Attend a fun two-hour cooking class from professional Sri Lankan chef

Take the catamaran cruise and adore the perfect coastline and blue shades of the Indian Ocean

Climb the Kudumbi Malai rock that gives a breath-taking bird’s eye view of the paddy fields, forests and Palmyra palms.

Beaches in Sri Lanka! A land like no other

Next one is for a romantic getaway. Mostly suggested for adventurous couples. (No pun intended!)

The Ark (Mathugama)

Have you ever wondered what it is like to be in Noah’s Ark?

Me neither.

But this Ark is not about fitting the entire population in it! It’s perfect for your honeymoon getaways.

Like I mentioned earlier, you wouldn’t really like it if you are more of a ‘car ride to a romantic hotel nearby’ kind of couple. Because this one is best recommended for the adventurous ones! I’ll tell you why.

First, is the wooden bridge in the Mathugama jungle that you need to trail to get to the boutique hotel. It’s way more adventurous than the other boutique hotels in Sri Lanka when it is rainy! You know, the slippery bridge factor.

Then, the fact that you are going to be on top of a hill. It’s more like a watch-hut what you have here. So, you are literally on top of a hill that gives a thrilling experience!

What is exotically boastful about the Ark is its location on the boarder of the Sinharaja rainforest.

What Makes the Ark Unique from other Boutique Hotels in Sri Lanka?

Whether you are booking the Ark as your honeymoon getaway or the best accommodation for a solo retreat, you have so much to do here!

Get out of the cosy hotel and spend your day discovering the hidden trails of the Mathugama forest.

Take the extra mile and master the art of rubber-tapping and tea-plucking

Reasons Why You Should Visit Sri Lanka

Next one is for those who want to stay literally away from the urbanised world! Because unlike in other boutique hotels in Sri Lanka, oil/kerosene lamps replace the mains electricity!

The Mudhouse (Anamaduwa)

The Mudhouse is undoubtedly one of the most unique traditional experiences in any boutique hotels in Sri Lanka.

It’s a perfect getaway for the adventurous travellers, whether you want to travel solo, with the family or your partner!

The best lines to describe this is from W.B. Yeats poem;

“I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,

And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;”

Located in the most remote location in Puttalam, the Mudhouse is like the perfect escape from the urban world.

Although the real experience of the beauty of the Mudhouse can only be felt once you are there at the location, the idea of this boutique hotel itself is highly fascinating.

Because, imagine yourself in the middle of wetlands that are traditionally criss-crossing to form the ancient irrigation network!

With the breeze caressing your face, the smell of fresh land tingling your nose, you are going to be in a different part of the world completely secluded from the bustles of the city or the urbanising towns.

Not just that, the Mudhouse also is the best go-to boutique hotel in Sri Lanka for you to encounter Sri Lankan birdlife.

It is also one of the best-recommended boutique hotels in Sri Lanka for those who look for green hotels in Sri Lanka.

What Makes the Mudhouse Unique from other Boutique Hotels in Sri Lanka?

The one unique feature of this boutique hotel is its insight into the ancient lifestyle of the locals in Sri Lanka. It’s a perfect getaway for you, into the traditional life of the multicultural Sri Lankan society. I’d say…a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity you shouldn’t miss.

Other experiences at the Mudhouse include;

Tuk ride to the Paramakanda Temple

Kayak and Paddle boarding

Visit the Local Friday market

Learn Sri Lanka’s traditional martial art (Angampora)

Sri Lanka – The pearl of the Indian ocean

Next in the list of top hotels in Sri Lanka is another eco-lodge like The Ark and Mudhouse you saw above!

Hideout Cabins (Nuwara Eliya)

The Hideout Cabins, just like the name portrays, is a perfect hideout for couples and solos who plan on retreats into the cold Nuwara Eliya woods.

What Makes Hideout Cabins Unique from other Boutique Hotels in Sri Lanka?

A wooden boutique, built in a unique shape, this boutique hotel in Sri Lanka gives a whole fairy-tale vibe. It’s like the little cottage that Snow White stayed in, in the woods. Except, this one gives you the perfect cosiness in the freezing hills.

Here are other landmarks around the Hideout Cabins that you can visit while cosying in the boutique within a 500m – 2km distance;

The Gregory Lake & Park

Hakgala Botanic Garden

Galway’s Land National Park

Hideout Cabins, just like The Ark, is a ‘must-visit and experience to have’ boutique hotel in Sri Lanka!

Source : Hideout Cabins (Nuwara Eliya)

The Best Off the Beaten Paths in Sri Lanka

Next, to one of the most-visited and liked boutique hotels in Sri Lanka.

98 Acres Resort (Ella)

Lately, Ella is like a ‘go-to’ tourist spot for both the locals and for those who visit Sri Lanka.

I cannot say its overrated, given its ‘out of the world’ sunrise and breath-taking views during sunsets.

The climb can be a little exhausting (I agree), but that is why the 98 Acres Resort is a perfect choice for the adventurous couples, backpackers and Instagram influencers!

If you are one of those adventure-seekers, then hike, climb or trek to reach the point of the little Adam’s Peak. Trust me, that’s the best way to absorb some of the breath-taking views of the eco-friendly huts, chalets, and villas!

Tip: Set many alarms as you can to wake up for the sunrise! The misty 5am morning view of the huts aligned in the verdant cliffs, is not something you would want to miss. You might as well need to make sure you have enough storage in your phone. Because, you’ll want to snap away almost everything your eyes catch in the location!

What Makes 98 Acres Resort Unique from other Boutique Hotels in Sri Lanka?

The resort is another eco-friendly lodge (I must say!) given that the chalets are made of recycled substances, mostly. It’s a luxury experience that you get, as you stay in one of these chic hotels amidst the lush tea bushes covering acres.

The other experiences at the 98 Acres Resort include;

Encountering Sri Lanka’s first-ever zipline (Flying Ravana)

Mastering the art of tea making

Experiencing Archery with the locals

Helicopter rides from the 98 Acres to Colombo

A holiday to Ella; With great hearts, comes great responsibilities

Next one is off the track because you are going to visit it for the unique work on the interior and architecture!

Boutique Villa (Negombo)

I am not sure if you have this weird desire too, but I have always wanted to live in a half-built house.

What Makes the Boutique Villa Unique from other Boutique Hotels in Sri Lanka?

Forget about the usual definition of luxury that has painted walls and modern pieces of furniture. At Boutique Villa in Negombo, you’ll literally live in a furnished, yet, half-built hotel. I know it’s a rare type of ‘luxury’, but that is what makes it unique among all other hotels in Sri Lanka.

Another best fact about this Villa is the royal experience you’ll have. Thinking of it in that line, you’ll almost be the king/queen in one of the ancient kingdoms. (with AC and Wi-Fi, of course!)

Your stay at this Villa will give you enough and more unique architectures to explore inside, but if you still want to visit other spots around, then there’s;

The Negombo Beach, located 500m from the Villa.

The Dutch Fort, 6km from the Villa

Sri Lanka – A melting pot of destinations

Next one in the list of boutique hotels in Sri Lanka, is for those who visit Sri Lanka for the love of Kandy!

Mount Havana Luxury Boutique Villa (Kandy)

Unlike the unending list of fabulous boutique hotels in Kandy, the Mount Havana is literally a piece of heaven tucked away in the hills!

What Makes the Mount Havana Luxury Boutique Villa Unique from other Boutique Hotels in Sri Lanka?

It is another perfect getaway, for a peaceful stay, free from the busy routines.

Whether you want to capture some of the spectacular views of the verdant hills or lose yourself in the tea fields around, either way, I am sure, once you checkout from the resort, half your heart (will definitely) be in Havana!

The Mount Havana is at the centre of many trademarks in Kandy. Including;;

Embekke Temple – 9.6 km

Ceylon Tea Museum – 14.3 km

Kandy View Point Mountain – 16.8 km

Kandy City Center Shopping Mall (KCC) – 17 km

Sri Dalada Maligawa – 17.3 km

Next on the list of boutique hotels in Sri Lanka, is for the modern adventure lovers.

The Country House Chalets (Galle)

Structured like tree-houses on the ground, the Country House Chalets are masterpieces in the woods.

What Makes the Country House Chalets Unique from other Boutique Hotels in Sri Lanka?

It is an impossible thought to think of such a boutique hotel in Galle, with the bustling city, it is known for! But, for those who can afford, the stay at the Country House Chalets will be the talk of generations to come in your line.

You can book one of the fine chalets there, depending on the amenities and affordability. Either way, all the chalets have a lot to give you in the getaway woods from Galle.

You can either explore the woods around the Country House Chalets or just stay in your chalet, amidst the tea gardens. The choice is yours!

Tip : The owner of the Country House Chalet is renowned for his extreme hospitality to a lot of those who had stayed here.

Source : The Country House Chalets (Galle)

Next, to a boutique located in the land that is home to the World Heritage in Sri Lanka and final one in our list of best boutique hotels in Sri Lanka.

Water Garden (Sigiriya)

One of my favourites out of all the top boutique hotels in Sri Lanka!

For those who know Sigiriya as a World Wonder, the Water Garden is a wonder in Sigiriya!

What Makes the Water Garden Unique from other Boutique Hotels in Sri Lanka?

It is one of the best boutique hotels in Sri Lanka, that again promotes an eco-friendly stay, amidst lakes and water streams.

A photographer could live the life of his dream here, as the hotel gives splendid views of the Sigiriya Rock and also has peacocks’ wandering the land, most of the time!

Besides getting lost in the unexplainable beauty of this boutique hotel, you can also:

Try your hands at Archery.

Spend your time outdoors playing Croquet

Take a guided tour to the Sigirya Lion Rock.

Go on a cultural tour to Dambulla, Polonnaruwa or the Ritigala Monastery.

Enjoy a jeep safari to Minneriya

My visit to Sigiriya – Sri Lanka

Now that you have your own list of the hidden boutique hotels in Sri Lanka, why wait?

Visit the Travel Center Website now! Our friendly travel agents will help you book your 2021 holidays to Sri Lanka right away! With that, they will also give you the best guide to the hotels that you can book and more places that you can explore in the pearl of the Indian Ocean. If you had spotted some other hidden gems like these before us, let us know in the comments below!

GET YOUR NEXT HOLIDAY MOOD ON!

Read More:- The 10 Hidden Boutique Hotels in Sri Lanka

This Article, Information & Images Source (copyright):- Travel Center UK Blog

#travel #travelblog #travelblogger #travelvibes #holidaymakers #travelcenteruk #destinations #srilanka

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globalmediacampaign · 4 years

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Percona Kubernetes Operator for Percona XtraDB Cluster: HAProxy or ProxySQL?

Percona Kubernetes Operator for Percona XtraDB Cluster comes with two different proxies, HAProxy and ProxySQL. While the initial version was based on ProxySQL, in time, Percona opted to set HAProxy as the default Proxy for the operator, without removing ProxySQL. While one of the main points was to guarantee users to have a 1:1 compatibility with vanilla MySQL in the way the operator allows connections, there are also other factors that are involved in the decision to have two proxies. In this article, I will scratch the surface of this why. Operator Assumptions When working with the Percona Operator, there are few things to keep in mind: Each deployment has to be seen as a single MySQL service as if a single MySQL instance The technology used to provide the service may change in time Pod resiliency is not guaranteed, service resiliency is Resources to be allocated are not automatically calculated and must be identified at the moment of the deployment In production, you cannot set more than 5 or less than 3 nodes when using PXC There are two very important points in the list above. The first one is that what you get IS NOT a Percona XtraDB Cluster (PXC), but a MySQL service. The fact that Percona at the moment uses PXC to cover the service is purely accidental and we may decide to change it anytime. The other point is that the service is resilient while the pod is not. In short, you should expect to see pods stopping to work and being re-created. What should NOT happen is that service goes down. Trying to debug each minor issue per node/pod is not what is expected when you use Kubernetes. Given the above, review your expectations… and let us go ahead. The Plus in the Game (Read Scaling) As said, what is offered with Percona Operator is a MySQL service. Percona has added a proxy on top of the nodes/pods that help the service to respect the resiliency service expectations. There are two possible deployments: HAProxy ProxySQL Both allow optimizing one aspect of the Operator, which is read scaling. In fact what we were thinking was, given we must use a (virtually synchronous) cluster, why not take advantage of that and allow reads to scale on the other nodes when available? This approach will help all the ones using POM to have the standard MySQL service but with a plus. But, with it also comes with some possible issues like READ/WRITE splitting and stale reads. See this article about stale reads on how to deal with it. For R/W splitting we instead have a totally different approach in respect to what kind of proxy we implement. If using HAProxy, we offer a second entry point that can be used for READ operation. That entrypoint will balance the load on all the nodes available. Please note that at the moment there is nothing preventing an application to use the cluster1-haproxy-replicas also for write, but that is dangerous and wrong because will generate a lot of certification conflicts and BF abort, given it will distribute writes all over the cluster impacting on performance as well (and not giving you any write scaling). It is your responsibility to guarantee that only READS will go through that entrypoint. If instead ProxySQL is in use, it is possible to implement automatic R/W splitting. Global Difference and Comparison At this point, it is useful to have a better understanding of the functional difference between the two proxies and what is the performance difference if any. As we know HAProxy acts as a level 4 proxy when operating in TCP mode, it also is a forward-proxy, which means each TCP connection is established with the client with the final target and there is no interpretation of the data-flow. ProxySQL on the other hand is a level 7 proxy and is a reverse-proxy, this means the client establishes a connection to the proxy who presents itself as the final backend. Data can be altered on the fly when it is in transit. To be honest, it is more complicated than that but allows me the simplification. On top of that, there are additional functionalities that are present in one (ProxySQL) and not in the other. The point is if they are relevant for use in this context or not. For a shortlist see below (source is from ProxySQL blog but data was removed) : As you may have noticed HAProxy is lacking some of that functionalities, like R/W split, firewalling, and caching, proper of the level 7 implemented in ProxySQL. The Test Environment To test the performance impact I had used a cluster deployed in GKE, with these characteristics: 3 Main nodes n2-standard-8 (8 vCPUs, 32 GB memory) 1 App node n2-standard-8 (8 vCPUs, 32 GB memory) PXC pods using: 25GB of the 32 available 6 CPU of the 8 available HAProxy: 600m CPU 1GB RAM PMM agent 500m CPU 500 MB Ram Tests using sysbench as for (https://github.com/Tusamarco/sysbench), see in GitHub for command details. What I have done is to run several tests running two Sysbench instances. One only executing reads, while the other reads and writes. In the case of ProxySQL, I had R/W splitting thanks to the Query rules, so both sysbench instances were pointing to the same address. While testing HAProxy I was using two entry points: Cluster1-haproxy – for read and write Cluster1-haproxy-replicas – for read only Then I also compare what happens if all requests hit one node only. For that, I execute one Sysbench in R/W mode against one entry point, and NO R/W split for ProxySQL. Finally, sysbench tests were executed with the –reconnect option to force the tests to establish new connections. As usual, tests were executed multiple times, on different days of the week and moments of the day. Data reported is a consolidation of that, and images from Percona Monitoring and Management (PMM) are samples coming from the execution that was closest to the average values. Comparing Performance When Scaling Reads These tests imply that one node is mainly serving writes while the others are serving reads. To not affect performance, and given I was not interested in maintaining full read consistency, the parameter wsrep_sync_wait was kept as default (0). A first observation shows how ProxySQL seems to keep a more stable level of requests served. The increasing load penalizes HAProxy reducing if ⅓ the number of operations at 1024 threads. Digging a bit more we can see that HAProxy is performing much better than ProxySQL for the WRITE operation. The number of writes remains almost steady with minimal fluctuations. ProxySQL on the other hand is performing great when the load in write is low, then performance drops by 50%. For reads, we have the opposite. ProxySQL is able to scale in a very efficient way, distributing the load across the nodes and able to maintain the level of service despite the load increase. If we start to take a look at the latency distribution statistics (sysbench histogram information), we can see that: In the case of low load and writes, both proxies stay on the left side of the graph with a low value in ms. HAProxy is a bit more consistent and grouped around 55ms value, while ProxySQL is a bit more sparse and spans between 190-293ms. About reads we have similar behavior, both for the large majority between 28-70ms. We have a different picture when the load increases: ProxySQL is having some occurrences where it performs better, but it spans in a very large range, from ~2k ms to ~29k ms. While HAProxy is substantially grouped around 10-11K ms. As a result, in this context, HAProxy is able to better serve writes under heavy load than ProxySQL. Again, a different picture in case of reads. Here ProxySQL is still spanning on a wide range ~76ms – 1500ms, while HAProxy is more consistent but less efficient, grouping around 1200ms the majority of the service. This is consistent with the performance loss we have seen in READ when using high load and HAProxy. Comparing When Using Only One Node But let us now discover what happens when using only one node. So using the service as it should be, without the possible Plus of read scaling. The first thing I want to mention is strange behavior that was consistently happening (no matter what proxy used) at 128 threads. I am investigating it but I do not have a good answer yet on why the Operator was having that significant drop in performance ONLY with 128 threads. Aside from that, the results were consistently showing HAProxy performing better in serving read/writes. Keep in mind that HAProxy just establishes the connection point-to-point and is not doing anything else. While ProxySQL is designed to eventually act on the incoming stream of data. This becomes even more evident when reviewing the latency distribution. In this case, no matter what load we have, HAProxy performs better: As you can notice, HAProxy is less grouped than when we have two entry points, but it is still able to serve more efficiently than ProxySQL. Conclusions As usual, my advice is to use the right tool for the job, and do not force yourself into something stupid. And as clearly stated at the beginning, Percona Kubernetes Operator for Percona XtraDB Cluster is designed to provide a MySQL SERVICE, not a PXC cluster, and all the configuration and utilization should converge on that. ProxySQL can help you IF you want to scale a bit more on READS using the possible plus. But this is not guaranteed to work as it works when using standard PXC. Not only do you need to have a very good understanding of Kubernetes and ProxySQL if you want to avoid issues, but with HAProxy you can scale reads as well, but you need to be sure you have R/W separation at the application level. In any case, utilizing HAProxy for the service is the easier way to go. This is one of the reasons why Percona decided to shift to HAProxy. It is the solution that offers the proxy service more in line with the aim of the Kubernetes service concept. It is also the solution that remains closer to how a simple MySQL service should behave. You need to set your expectations correctly to avoid being in trouble later. References Percona Kubernetes Operator for Percona XtraDB Cluster Wondering How to Run Percona XtraDB Cluster on Kubernetes? Try Our Operator! The Criticality of a Kubernetes Operator for Databases https://www.percona.com/blog/2021/01/11/percona-kubernetes-operator-for-percona-xtradb-cluster-haproxy-or-proxysql/

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expatimes · 4 years

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Capitol chaos, Bitcoin surge, Neil Young and Iraq’s time keeper

If you’ve felt like the first week of 2021 lasted seven years rather than seven days, you’re far from alone.

People around the world have been glued to their screens as scenes of chaos, violence and civil unrest unfolded in the United States Capitol Building during what was supposed to be a formality in certifying President-elect Joe Biden’s win.

Take a deep breath. You made it to Friday. Catch up on some of the biggest business and economic news stories you might have missed this week, then unplug your phone and go to bed early as your mom told you to.

35.2 million

The number of followers President Donald Trump has on his Facebook page, which the company’s CEO announced has been suspended “indefinitely” following the violence and chaos Trump incited at the Capitol Building on Wednesday.

“We believe the risks of allowing President Trump to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great, so we are extending the block we have placed on his Facebook and Instagram accounts indefinitely and for at least the next two weeks,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on Thursday.

At least four people died in the post-election riots at the Capitol on Wednesday and dozens have been arrested.

Trump has frequently used social media platforms Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to speak directly to his followers and issue policy decisions, in contrast with former US presidents. Twitter and Snap Inc, which owns Snapchat, temporarily locked the president’s accounts, and e-commerce giant Shopify removed Trump stores from its platform.

It’s the first time Trump is without his social media megaphone. Stay tuned.

140,000

The number of jobs the US economy shed last month, according to Department of Labor figures. Friday’s employment report marked a horrendous end to the most abysmal year for job losses on record.

The nation’s unemployment rate held steady at 6.7 percent, as did the number of unemployed persons – some 10.7 million workers.

December’s non-farm payroll numbers slammed the brakes on seven straight months of job gains. Taken as a whole, the data tells us what other metrics have been signalling since the end of the summer: that the US economic recovery lost steam in the fourth and final quarter of 2020.

Bitcoin has doubled its value in the last month alone, helping the cryptocurrency market surpass $1 trillion in value

$40,000

Wall Street didn’t seem to mind the chaos and bleak numbers, however. All three major US stock indices posted gain through to Thursday, and cryptocurrency Bitcoin soared above $40,000 for the first time ever.

Bitcoin has doubled its value in the last month alone, helping the cryptocurrency market surpass $1 trillion in value.

$2.5bn

Boeing agreed to pay more than $2.5bn to settle a criminal probe into its handling of safety issues with the 737 MAX, which was grounded after two crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia killed a combined 346 people.

As part of its settlement with the US Department of Justice, Boeing won’t have to plead guilty to criminal charges but will pay big. That includes $243.6m in criminal penalties, $1.77bn in compensation payments to airline customers and $500m into a fund it must create to support the heirs, relatives and legal beneficiaries of the passengers who were killed in the crashes.

50 percent

The share of his songbook Canadian rocker Neil Young sold to UK firm Hipgnosis Songs Fund Ltd, including hits like Heart of Gold. Young is the latest musician to sell some of his back catalogues as the pandemic continues to obliterate concert revenue.

Under the deal, which gives Hipgnosis half of the copyright and income interests from Young’s 1,180 songs, the company will be able to cash in every time someone streams one of Young’s most popular hits, Bloomberg News reported.

In December, rocker Bob Dylan sold his music rights to Universal Music Group Inc. But rock n’ roll isn’t dead — it might just need a stimulus plan of its own.

Youssef Abdelkarim presents an antique Omega pocket-watch as he sits at his workshop

Three

The number of generations of shopkeeper Youssef Abdelkarim’s family that have kept Baghdad running on time by fixing its citizens’ watches.

Abdelkarim began working in the shop with his father at the age of 11 and suspects his family may have even repaired a timepiece belonging to the country’s late dictator, Saddam Hussein.

“It was a rare watch brought to me by the presidential palace, with Saddam’s signature on the back,” he told the AFP news agency.

And while times have changed, some things simply never do.

“A man’s elegance begins with his watch. And his shoes,” he remarked.

#world Read full article: https://expatimes.com/?p=16564&feed_id=27485 #artsandculture #aviation #businessandeconomy #coronaviruspandemic #crypto #donaldtrump #economy #europe #financialmarkets #iraq #middleeast #music #news #unitedkingdom #unitedstates #usampcanada

#ArtsandCulture #Aviation #BusinessandEconomy #Coronaviruspandemic #Crypto #DonaldTrump #Economy #Europe #FinancialMarkets #Iraq #MiddleEast #Music #News #UnitedKingdom #UnitedStates #USampCanada

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evanvanness · 5 years

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Annotated edition for latest Week in Ethereum News

Original Week in Ethereum News issue that this post provides annotations for.

One thing that surprises me as I’m out talking to people is how many folks bought the NFT but haven’t discovered that I’m now putting out these annotated editions un-paywalled here. In general, communication in a decentralized ecosystem is difficult, which was a theme of my EthCC talk.

The big news this morning is that an EthLondon/EthCC attendee has tested positive for corona. Stay safe out there.

Once upon a time I used to do a “top stories” in the weekly newsletter. Arguably this week the big stories are 1) Baseline Protocol, 2) Semaphore, 3) ProgPoW appears to be dead for now (though of course proponents would disagree), 4) iden3′s zk-rollup on testnet.

Why do these things matter: Baseline matters because increasingly enterprises are realizing that private chains don’t make much sense, but instead using mainnet as a message bus (nod to John Wolpert’s Magic Bus) is the way to go. EY has done great work with Nightfall allowing privacy in transactions, and this is an extension of that.

Semaphore is similar because it allows devs to build privacy into apps.

ProgPoW appears to be dead for now since core devs seemed to back away from the idea of a chain split, though I think running it on a testnet makes a lot of sense, just in case. However it’s not clear under what circumstances the community would come together.

Finally, iden3′s zk-rollup is just about scaling ETH and token transfers so that a few thousand per second can be done. Layer2 scaling has been hyped for a long time in ETH (and BTC before it) but it’s finally really happening - Loopring’s zk-rollup exchange went live on mainnet last week!

Eth1

Latest core devs call on ProgPoW and EIP1962/curve precompiles. Notes. ProgPoW appears to be dead.

A ProgPoW exploit from Kikx. Kristy’s explanation

Trinity v0.1.0-alpha.35, Beam Sync with better pivots, -goerli flag, ENRs

DHT solution to solve data retrieval problem in stateless Ethereum

What curve precompiles to add is almost as contentious as ProgPoW, but more esoteric than GPU v ASIC, so it doesn’t get as much attention. We’ve put some precompiles in that didn’t get heavy usage, so trying to figure out the threshold

Eth2

Latest what’s new in Eth2

Prysmatic client update – big RAM reduction, first slashing success, updated to latest spec

Lighthouse client update – 70% faster block processing, 110 blocks/sec sync, big RAM reduction

zk tooling for an ewasm EE

Combining Ghost and Casper paper proving safety and liveness under various assumptions

Not much to say here, the usual combination of clients doing the heavy lifting to get phase0 into production. Obviously you should read Ben’s What’s New in Eth2 for more commentary - as is often the case, it is the most clicked link in this week’s newsletter.

Layer2

iden3’s zk-rollup is live on Goerli testnet, ongoing work to reduce the proof generation bottleneck

Stuff for developers

any.sender tutorial – tx relayer that ensures block inclusion by a certain time

Kollateral flash loan pool aggregator, available through JS or Solidity (though unaudited!)

Why ENS had to migrate due to samczsun’s bughunting

Easy multi-contract analysis with Mythril

Fast modular multiplication in Go library

BSol: benchmarking Solidity computation and gas usage

Truffle v5.1.16 – better debugger/decoder with Solc v0.6.3

Understanding event logs

Terminal and IPFS for easy frontend deployment

Argent’s method for easy wallet access, one click transactions, available as npm package

web3connect is now web3modal, still focused on being a web3 solution for all wallets

The usual grab bag. Interesting to see how many people are building things with flashloans.

Ecosystem

Semaphore: a generic privacy layer using snarks, audited and ready for devs to build on

Zeropool, live on testnet

Questions DeFi users should ask their DeFi apps

Linda Xie’s list of oracles per DeFi project

EthCC videos are already online.

I love how EthCC got their videos online immediately, with same day turnaround. Getting videos online is a public good - if you organize a conference, you generally feel like you’re done when the conference is over, which is why videos often don’t get online until weeks later. But the broader community who isn’t at the conference cares the most about videos getting online - and EthCC did that and streamed them live. Bravo to Jerome, Bettina and the rest of the Ethereum France team.

Enterprise

EY, Microsoft and ConsenSys announce the Baseline Protocol, using mainnet as a message bus for enterprise that is private using snarks

Paul Brody’s Baseline Protocol explainer, based around the enterprise volume procurement prototype

“Morningstar Rates First Ethereum Security In $40 Million Fatburger Deal,” with the deal structurer aiming at doing 500m USD in projects this year on mainnet

The structurer is called Cadence, it will be interesting to see if they hit their 500m goal.

Governance, DAOs, and standards

An update on EIP1559 – predictable transaction fees and intrinsically tying ETH to the protocol

OracleDAO – a MolochDAO style booster of Augur/REP

0x governance update, progressing toward full decentralization

Some form of 1559 is definitely going to happen, but nailing down the details for a non-minimal change has taken longer than expected.

Application layer

PieDAO, a DeFi asset allocation DAO, where governance tokens vote for allocations with fees accruing to the token

Providing insurance on Opyn to earn premiums from your ETH

Building liquidity into token distribution, highlighting the flexibility of Balancer

Hegic Protocol, on-chain options trading protocol

Golem Hive, PoC of a virtual network of Docker containers on Golem

Unstoppable Domains adds a Chromium-based browser running a local IPFS node

Sell music tracks with Unlock + IPFS + ENS

Instadapp’s DeFi accounts to abstract things away for DeFi users

Messaging and privacy in Status

I like to occasionally check and see how much of what I put in the app layer section is DeFi. It’s an interesting check on what was released - but of course what everyone counts as DeFi is not obvious when in some sense Ethereum is the value transfer layer that we were promised decades ago for the internet.

Tokens/Business/Regulation

India’s Supreme Court reverses crypto banking ban

pTokens launch on mainnet, starting with pBTC

Decrypt will launch its own OST token

A few years ago I considered doing a token for Week in Ethereum, so I’m quite curious to see how it goes for Decrypt.

General

Guido Vranken releases his fuzzing engine

Lego Factory: why I’m stewarding the 1 million Eth devs movement

Two Eth2 staking user surveys from Aqeel/Lighthouse and CodeFi

That’s it for my notes this week. I tried to focus less on saying something for each section and instead try to highlight things for those who pay a little less attention to this space.

Apologies for not getting a chance to do the annotated edition last week during EthCC.

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thisdaynews · 5 years

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Joao Felix & Antoine Griezmann: Meet the lender behind the some of football's biggest transfers

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/joao-felix-antoine-griezmann-meet-the-lender-behind-the-some-of-footballs-biggest-transfers/

Joao Felix & Antoine Griezmann: Meet the lender behind the some of football's biggest transfers

Joao Felix has been called the most exciting Portuguese player since Cristiano Ronaldo

A few steps from London’s West End, and just a couple of miles from the capital’s financial district, is a company helping football’s elite seal some of the world’s biggest transfers.

Joao Felix moved from Benfica in Portugal to Spain’s Atletico Madrid as the world’s second-most expensive teenager, thanks to a loan processed in trendy Fitzrovia.

Less than a fortnight after making that £113m deal a reality last July, 23 Capital were helping Barcelona meet Atletico’s £107m buyout clause for Antoine Griezmann.

“It was a strong summer for us, we were involved in some of the biggest and best moves,” chief executive and co-founder Jason Traub told BBC Sport.

“We call ourselves a capital and solutions company for sport, music and entertainment – a sports bank, for lack of a better term.

“We help affect deals but we are not changing the way deals are done, or whether they do or don’t ultimately happen. But we are certainly helping.”

Traub, who spent 13 years with Investec Bank, and partner Stephen Duval, an Australian who previously worked with the Olympic Games and sports management company IMG, have made an impact.

Last summer’s window saw a record £5bn spent across Europe’s top five leagues, and they were involved in two of the biggest moves.

Atletico broke their transfer record for Felix just two years after moving into their £220m Metropolitano home.

Going to a lending company was an alternative way to fund his arrival without having to raise money by offloading French World Cup-winning forward Griezmann first.

‘Distilling transfer-market pressure’

Antoine Griezmann’s move to Barcelona from Atletico Madrid was regarded the worst-kept secret in Spanish football last summer

Barcelona took out a bridging loan to ensure they landed Griezmann in time for a money-spinning pre-season tour of Japan and the United States after their request for more funding from Spanish banks was reportedly turned down, having already borrowed more than £500m for stadium renovations.

“In truth, the real pressure at that time, for that transfer, was the start of pre-season, flying off to the Far East and the knock-on effects of not being able to unveil a superstar signing for the year as you land and what that would mean for exposure and sales. That impact was a factor for them,” Traub said.

“We don’t love being asked to make sense of transactions within a short timeline, particularly for those amounts, but for very good clubs that we know intimately and understand their credit strengths, if it makes sense we can move quickly.”

Neither transfer was dependent on the other and so the domino effect which can often define a transfer window was reduced.

“In the old days you would have some of these deals happening in the last five days or even last five hours of the transfer window,” Traub said.

“Don’t get me wrong, we’ve all been glued to the TV watching the reporter in a car park waiting for that first deadline day move to happen and loved it.

“But it is not helpful or good for the game to rely on that first shot across the bow. So now clubs have a better means to a credible finance partner and are not as reliant on waiting for a Real Madrid, Barcelona or Manchester United to make that first payment to allow the rest to follow.

“We have distilled down the pressures that used to exist. Taking away some of that pressure in negotiations is much healthier in any event.”

‘Boutique lenders’

Helping clubs finance transfers or stadium improvements by lending against future broadcast income and the value of players as intangible assets is nothing new, and there are a number of lenders to whom clubs can turn.

Traub says an already established relationship with Benfica, having helped restructure their balance sheet, played a part in their involvement in the Felix transfer ahead of others “desperate to try to help because it was an opportunistic transaction”.

He continued: “In this market place there are a number of brokers and banking groups that see this as a quick way to make money because they see these deals as being very visible and you might not need a world of credit expertise to understand that Barcelona or Real Madrid, at face value, will pay you back next year for a transfer.”

Football finance expert Kieran Maguire, of the University of Liverpool, describes the firm as a “boutique” lender that has spotted a gap in the industry.

“They have realised that the transfer market and the club transaction market is unregulated, often unprofessional and contains people who see football as an opportunity for an easy profit. If anyone can then come in and run a professional service and effectively provide a one-stop shop, then there is a gap in the market,” he said.

“Whether that will be successful in generating the level of income they are looking for, I’m not so certain because football is a very insular industry and there are unusually close relationships between agents, management and clubs, and that particular dynamic will be difficult to break.

“But for clubs that do operate with integrity and do things by the books, then there is potential for a company like 23 Capital to be involved.

“A boutique operation, and that is what they are, don’t have to go through so many layers of approval, don’t have to go through governance rules you may see at JP Morgan, where a bank of that nature is very risk concerned and will have a compliance department, which to a certain extent is the tail wagging the dog in corporate lending.”

‘Blue-chip focus’

Grammy-award-winning rapper Childish Gambino, also known as Donald Glover, has a publishing deal with the Kobalt Music Group

When Traub and Duval went about founding a business that could work as effectively in football as it could in Formula 1 and tennis or the music industry and in Hollywood, they did so with a ‘high end’ focus.

Traub says more than £2.3bn has been provided by 23 Capital since its inception, evenly split between sport and the entertainment industry – in which they have provided finance for the Kobalt Music Group, which has Childish Gambino and the Red Hot Chili Peppers on its roster, and holds publishing rights to the late Elvis Presley’s recorded work.

Since its beginnings in London in 2014, the company has expanded to open offices in Barcelona, New York and Los Angeles.

“We have always wanted to position ourselves very much in the blue chip,” Traub explained.

“We have been able to get great traction at the very top and a profile with industry leaders in the three sectors.

“A real challenge was how we saw ourselves. We wanted to be principle lenders, we wanted to build our own balance sheet, we didn’t want to be brokers or fund managers for other people – we effectively wanted to set up a banking model so that we could own that risk.”

With backing from billionaire philanthropist George Soros, Traub and Duval got the business up, running and positioned where they wanted.

Ensuring they made a success of it took a considered approach to recruiting in an effort to become “pure play” or specialist lenders across sport, music and entertainment.

“We have pulled individuals from places like Universal Music, people who have worked in football, within the business as much as pulled credit specialists,” Traub added.

“We are a business, not unlike a bank in some ways. But an individual at a bank may get a deal done because they can get a bonus at the end of the year or maybe go to a different bank if it doesn’t work out – but this is our livelihood.

“We are truly aligned to our clients, the football industry, to drive value for them in a symbiotic relationship, and that is what credit should be.”

#biggest #transfers

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mamamaya · 5 years

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Back in 2016, we had the chance to visit Manado for the very first time where we spent most of the 4D/3N visit at Grand Luley Resort in Tongkaina. It was such a memorable experience that we returned to the same resort in less than 6 months and during that time, we didn’t even set foot outside of the resort!

Yes, it was a memorable experience. These past few days, my mind had drifted multiple times to the captivating, clear water of Bunaken and the good times I had at Grand Luley Resort in Manado. I can almost hear the sand and sea calling my name… and as if no times have passed since my visit, I was able to jot down a few things that I had loved most during the visit.

1.The private jetty. The jetty is one of our favorite spots in the whole resort. We loved walking the 500m boarded pathway with mangrove all the way to the seashore. From the jetty, we have caught the best scenes as the sunset behind the volcanic mountain, Manado-tua, and we’ve gazed at the most beautiful stars expanded across the sky. That spot never fails to make me feel small in the greatness of nature. I was told that if you wake up early enough in the mornings, you might even be as lucky as to see dolphins. Of course, I never woke up early enough to see it for myself.

2. Snorkel party in Bunaken Island. On the next morning after we arrived at the resort, we arranged for a boat trip to go to the Bunaken, the island pride of Manado. After breakfast, we walked towards the jetty to the speedboat the hotel had on standby for us, along with a box of mineral water, a stack of towels, sets of life-vests and snorkels, and a hotel staff to accompany us. The clear blue water was so inviting that the 20-minute boat ride seemed too long; we barely could wait before jumping into the sea. The moment our speedboat hit the dock, the snorkel party began! We had our share of fun in the sun… Thanks to the resort who arranged it!

3. Private balcony (with built-in towel rack). Call me “easy to please”, but as a mom with kids constantly in the water, having a rack to hang their clothes dry is a major plus point. Not to mention the view! In the morning, my children would wake up and go straight out on the balcony to greet the day. You don’t see them doing that here at home because mornings are clearly crazy around these parts. The best of the holidays are always the free mornings and it’s great to be free with a view like this.

4. Pisang Goreng with Sambal Roa. Banana fritters with fish chili sauce? I get how the combo might seem weird, but it tasted so, so, so good! Especially when we’re having it by the poolside.

5. Discover Scuba experience. Now this, in particular, was extremely special and memorable for me. I promised myself last year that I’d do something that I’ve never done before and after months of convincing myself to go for it, I finally went scuba diving IN THE OPEN SEA! (It’s kind of a big deal for a girl who gets scared of sharks when swimming in large pools.) It didn’t matter that I spent the first few minutes down there almost hyperventilating, worrying that I’d run my oxygen tank empty within seconds and pushing thoughts of Jaws far, far from my mind. I hung on to the dive master’s hands like I was hanging on to dear life (because I literally was). But I’m so glad I did it because it was gorgeous down there. Things moved slower under the sea and if cannot appreciate the beauty of Manado, you should go under the sea, because that’s where the beauty lies. I’m also really glad that they have this program for non-divers such as myself, with professional dive masters who takes care of you. I didn’t sign myself up for dive licence (although I was very much tempted to) but thanks to Grand Luley, I checked something off my bucket list.

6. “Adopt A Coral” Program. A resort that cares for the environment in its surroundings? There’s really nothing better! Through this program, Grand Luley Resorts can help the public to learn about marine conservation as well as to encourage guests to sponsor transplanted corals and monitor its growth. You might think that this is simply a corporate social responsibility initiative, but knowing the owner and what she stands for, I believe that this program is really for the environment. Adopt A Coral program aims to revive and strengthen coral reef ecosystems in Bunaken by transplanting baby corals or coral fragments to form a new coral reef. The baby corals, which come from a mother colony that thrives in the area, will be taken care off by dedicated personnel. These reefs will serve as home and spawning grounds for thousands of reef fish.

7. Indomie at Siladen. There’s no beach in Grand Luley and that’s probably the only down side of the whole resort. However, Siladen Island is only about 10 minutes away by speedboat and it has become our family’s favorite beach. The fact that it’s quiet and not filled with tourist is what we love most about it. There aren’t many commercial places either – which is a good thing – until the kids were hungry and we didn’t have any food on hand. (At first, we had assume that it was a tourist destination and that it’s bound to sell food or something.) It began to rain almost at the same time the kids started screaming for food. We went to the nearest “warung” and bought instant noodles. Since these instant noodles still needed to be cooked, we stopped to ask one of the locals if we could buy some hot water from them. Lucky for us, we were accompanied by two customer service staff from Grand Luley Resort. They helped to connect us with the locals and they even went into the kitchen to prepare our noodles for us. I understand that it wasn’t much, but their attentiveness towards us really touched my heart. And although the instant noodles ended up being the most expensive noodles we ever ate (because who’d blame the warung for taking advantage of the opportunity and sell the noodles at higher price to tourists, right? They’d be silly not to.), it was one of the best and most memorable experience we’ve ever had with Indomie.

8. The friendly staff. I can sing praises all day about the friendliness of the staff at Grand Luley. And this picture sums it all. Thank you for making us feel at home in the Grand Luley Resort.

8 Ways Grand Luley Resort in Manado Made Us Fall In Love Back in 2016, we had the chance to visit Manado for the very first time where we spent most of the 4D/3N visit at Grand Luley Resort in Tongkaina.

#holiday review

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megaechoposts-blog · 5 years

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Australia’s Gold Coast is a surfing destination but even if you don’t surf, there is so much to do here for families, adventure seekers and beach lovers, like me! From a rainforest hinterland to theme parks, nightlife, street markets, wildlife sanctuaries and some truly unique experiences such as hang-gliding and glowworm caves, there’s something for everyone.

What immediately catches your attention in Australia’s Gold Coast is the skyline – tall skyscrapers looming against the golden sand beaches, enormous waves, and a boundless ocean. You’re highly unlikely to encounter an overcast day here and the extensive coastline is dotted with surfing breaks, glorious warm waters and immense opportunities to capture the perfect sunset.

My Australia trip started in Melbourne and lasted for about 3 weeks and this meant, letting go of a lot of things that I would have liked to do if I had more time. I spent 2 days in the Gold Coast but I could have easily spent a couple more. I’m very much a theme park enthusiast, but having been to several across the world (and also, because I was travelling with my senior parents), I decided to focus on other unique and uncommon activities while here. I have, however, in my post mentioned those things which I had to skip but wish I could have included in my trip.

Australia’s Gold Coast wasn’t as exciting as visiting Cairns and Great Barrier Reef, or even the Whitsunday Islands but it was a close third in my list, especially because I fell in love with Byron Bay. I drove here from Brisbane, via Tamborine Mountain but if you’re already in Gold Coast, then I suggest you start your trip with a visit to the Tamborine Mountain early in the morning. To make the most of your trip, renting a car would be a great idea!

Click here to rent a car in Australia’s Gold Coast.

Day 1: Tamborine Mountain & Gold Coast

Although there are other options such as Springbrook National Park & Lamington National Park, I chose Mt Tamborine because of the diversity of experiences available here. Hardly a 40-min drive away from Surfer’s Paradise in Australia’s Gold Coast, Tamborine Mountain is a lush rainforest with rock pools, canopy walks, hiking trails, adventure parks, and even wineries. You can easily spend a day here so the earlier you start, the better it is!

Cedar Creek Falls

Cedar Creek Falls: Rock Pools

A fairly narrow road that branches off from the Tamborine Mountain road will bring you to the Cedar Creek Falls. Be prepared for a walk down to these falls from the car parking lot. If you’re not keen on going all the way down to the falls, you can walk to the lookout point (500m) and return. However, on a bright and warm day, you will surely want to carry your swimwear, sunblock and sunglasses to be able to jump into the cool waters of the rock pools formed below the waterfalls. The track ahead of the viewpoint is likely to be slippery so its best to wear comfortable and rugged footwear. A series of cascades and pools which are frequented by the locals can be found once at the bottom of the walking path. A dip in these shallow pools is well worth your while!

Tree-top Challenge at Thunderbird Park

Thunderbird Park, Mt Tambourine

I went here specifically for the Canyon Flyer Tour, considered to be Australia’s highest and fastest zip line attraction. While it sounded like the most exciting experience at the park, there were, of course, other activities for the lesser adventurous people. The Canyon Flyer Tour takes you to 7 highly exciting zip lines, soaring you over the lush rainforest and Cedar Creek gorge below. The groups are usually small and the session timings are fixed, so it’s best to find out the availability and the timings before planning your visit. The tour lasts for about 3 hours and costs $120.

If you’re looking for something slightly less in the adrenaline department but exciting, nonetheless, you can visit the Treetop Adventure park that has Tarzan swings, flying fox swings, easier zip lines and other rope courses, suitable for the younger people too. Whichever you plan to do, keep about 3-4 hours for this experience. If you’re interested in any of the activities, you can simply enjoy some quiet time by the creek or in the cafeteria.

Treetop Challenge and Thunderbird Park, Mt Tambourine

Canyon Flyer

Tamborine Rainforest Skywalk

If you’re not really an adventurous person and would rather skip the Treetop challenge and Thunderbird Park, there is yet another way to enjoy the view of the thick forests from the top. This canopy walk is about 1.5 kilometres on a stable platform, that takes you amidst the flora and fauna of the Australian rainforests, providing ample insights into the trees, insects, birds and animals that can be found in the area. A leisurely 45-minute walk takes you past waterfalls, creeks and gorgeous greenery. The experience costs only $20.

Glowworm Caves

Glowworms are typically found only in Australia and New Zealand, so although these caves in the Tamborine Mountain are artificially created and are no match to the Waitomo Glowworm Caves in NZ, it’s a rare experience nevertheless. Due to the ever-increasing temperatures in Australia over the last few years, these caves were purpose-built to provide a controlled environment for the glow worms to survive. The entrance to these caves is through the Cedar Creek Estate Vineyard & Winery. The tours depart every hour (you can utilize the waiting time in trying out some wine at the cellar or the restaurant on site), and the knowledgeable, as well as passionate guides, explain the significance the mode of the life of these glow worms. The alluring blue glow of the worms is a way of hunting for prey and when thousands of these worms are gathered in one dark cave, it forms a sea of starry lights. One needs to get accustomed to the darkness inside the caves; no photography is allowed. The tour itself lasts for about 30-45 min.

Cedar Creek Estate Vineyard & Winery

Back to Australia’s Gold Coast

In the afternoon, head back to Gold Coast. If you manage to get here before sunset, head to Sky Point Observation Deck, located on the 77th floor of Q1 near Surfer’s Paradise, one of the tallest buildings in Australia. You can enjoy panoramic views of the Gold Coast’s skyline and coastline. If you’re an adventure enthusiast, you can also attempt the Sky Point Climb which starts from the 77th-floor observation deck and is one of Australia’s highest external building walks. Harnessed and ready to climb 298 stairs to the building’s summit, this activity reminded me of the edge walk in Toronto’s CN Tower, except that this one actually requires for you to climb higher than you already are and the only way down is via those stairs. A handrail and harness definitely make the climb easier and safer and the views are absolutely worth it. Needless to say, this experience is NOT meant for the faint-hearted, especially if you’re acrophobic!

Sky Point Climb

Sunset at Surfers Paradise Beach

Perhaps one of the most golden sunsets I’ve seen was at Australia’s Gold Coast. Not only is Surfer’s Paradise Beach the best for surfing enthusiasts but it is also the most lively with an esplanade with walkers, cyclists and skateboards, and offers the best views of the ocean possible. Several restaurants are located across the road from the beach and one of my favourites was a Mexican restaurant called Gringo Loco Cantina.

Sunset at Surfer’s Paradise Beach

Beachfront Night Market

We were fortunate to be in Australia’s Gold Coast on a Wednesday night because these amazing beachfront night markets are held on Surfers Paradise only on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday nights (4 to 9 pm). A very lively atmosphere with entertainment, music and stalls selling local arts, souvenirs, foodstuff, fashion, jewellery and homewares, I was impressed with the designs and collection available here. I am totally a street market person and a sucker for good deals, fashionable clothes, unique and authentic food items and handicrafts.

Night beachfront market, Surfers Paradise

Dining at Surfers Paradise

Suggested budget hotel stay near Surfers Paradise Beach: Mantra on View Hotel.

Day 2: Coolangatta and Byron Bay

Slightly more laid-back and pristine than Gold Coast’s Surfers Paradise is Coolangatta, which is located about 30 minutes away by road and on the way to Byron Bay. It is also the border between Queensland and New South Wales and the intriguing part is, that within a span of seconds, you switch from one time zone to another (New South Wales is an hour behind), in the summer month (Oct-Apr). Some popular beaches/ viewing platforms here include Kirra beach, Rainbow Bay, Snapper Rocks and Point Danger.

Another 50-min drive ahead of Coolangatta is one of the most beautiful coastal cities I’ve seen in a while – Byron Bay. Yet another surfing paradise, I loved this place because of the crystal clear blue waters which were a feast for the eyes. On a warm sunny day, the waters are perfect for kayaking or swimming or even better, hang-gliding!

The Pass, Byron Bay

Although Byron Beach and Wategos Beach are the two most popular beaches to visit in the area, if you’re looking to stay away from the crowds, Tallow Beach is completely untouched! However, you’re also highly unlikely to find any restaurants or bars in this area; it is a long, untouched stretch of pure golden sand and blue waters, where it is not hard to spot dolphins and manta rays. For some of the best vantage point views, head to Fisherman’s Lookout, where an elevated platform offers some breathtaking vistas of the ocean. Grab a quick bite at The Pass Cafe while you’re here.

Fisherman’s Lookout, Byron Bay

Tallow Beach Lookout Point, Byron Bay

Another popular point to head to is the Cape Byron Lighthouse which offers sweeping views of the Pacific Ocean. The lighthouse stands at the tip of Cape Byron and an easy 4-km walking track is a great way to enjoy the scenic place. But the one activity I highly recommend, especially for adventure enthusiasts, is hang-gliding!

Cape Byron Lighthouse

Hang-gliding in Byron Bay

Although I found the activity slightly pricey, there’s no feeling like soaring in the skies and enjoying (literally) a bird’s eye view of such a beautiful destination. Of course, the activity is highly dependent on the weather conditions so it’s best to check before planning the trip if it is taking place on that day or not. I flew with Peter Aitken, a chief flying instructor at Lennox Head (you can book your experience here) and the flight lasted for about 30 minutes during which he taught me how to manoeuvre the hang glider, we saw some dolphins in the sea below and talked about how amazing it is they have the freedom to fly so high in the skies, at the mercy of the winds, without any motor or engine.

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Soaring the skies in this gorgeous location

Day 3: Warner Bros Movie World Theme Park or Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary

Unfortunately, my trip was only for two days so I could not fit in either of these options into m itinerary. I prioritized visiting Byron Bay, Mt Tamborine & Surfers Paradise in the limited amount of time on hand. Also, since I had already got my kangaroo and koala fix in Cairns, I was not disappointed about skipping Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary. If you have not made it to the many parks in Australia, you might want to head here, the park is hardly about 30 minutes away from Surfers Paradise.

Also, visiting a theme park in Gold Coast is one of the top things to do; ‘Goldie’ (as Australia’s Gold Coast is lovingly called) is a theme park enthusiast’s paradise, with several options available such as Warner Bros Movie World, Sea World & Dreamworld. Several multi-park access options are also available which you can read about here.

The post 3 amazing days in Australia’s Gold Coast appeared first on Hopping Feet.

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knurrsdomain-blog · 7 years

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Every year, at summer I have some strange “lazy”(?) mode on. I try to shorten my trainings and got an unusual desire to eat more sugar/carbs. Well, I can deal with the first one easily - I’ve already started doin’ crossfit-like trainings instead or typical weightlifting. Still trying new possibilities. Yesterday I gave a shot to my “deadly combination” which was: Deadlift, OHP, 500m run. 3-4 minutes of break x4 and then barbell bench press, rowing (version for rear actress's shoulders) and 10 burpees x4. I tried it all with a pretty big weight (almost my max for these reps). The hardes part of it was definitely last run #annihilation... but I liked it. Next time I sholud try doin’ same thing with lower weights but much quicker (maybe with sprint intervals at running?). So many options for that training - love that. How about the second one? Here I’ve got to admit - I will sabotage my own post about protein-fatty breakfast. When I do eat such meal I feel like “gimme sugar” during evening and nothing can stop me from cheating :D (lol, really nothing) BUT when I add carbs into my morning meal, there is nothing that could make me cheat. So as you see the “rules” are not always same for everyone BTW. good morning!

My fav. “starter pack” breakfast. Today with walnuts & goi berries. #MeGusta. Have a great day! And listen to Michael :D https://youtu.be/dsUXAEzaC3Q Knurr out

#new training #Pro-fat breakfast not so cool?#breakfast #NoteOfTheDay

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youseethingsandyouknow · 7 years

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Dream AU Where Percy is Never a Demigod

-It happens after a horrible day at school where Percy is completely overwhelmed trying to catch up with what he missed when he was gone and his stress and anger are through the roof.

-He tries to call Annabeth but remembers that she is still up in Boston dealing with everything and doesn’t want to bug her. His mom and Paul are at a baby doctor appointment and so Percy is all by himself trying to deal with everything coming at him at once.

-Between the homework and flashbacks and exhaustion, in a fit of rage, Percy slaps his textbooks off his desk and they slam on the ground as he groans in anger and looks up at his apartment ceiling, looking to pick a fight with the gods.

-”You know if I wasn’t constantly cleaning up your shit I might actually be doing something with my life instead of trying not to fail out of school and continually falling behind. I mean wasn’t it enough that you took eight months away from me and threw Annabeth and I into Tarturus! Gods!” He shouts angrily and goes to retrieve his books from the ground.

-Once he is done cleaning up and sits back down at his desk, he is still frustrated and distracted and glances out his window where he can see people walking on the sidewalk, completely unaware that there are such things as gods and monsters among them.

-Percy shakes his head and mutters, “Sometimes I wish I was never a demigod. I mean they have it so easy.”

-Later that night after finally finishing his reading and past-due assignments, Percy flops on his bed and immediately, his eyes get heavy and he drifts off to sleep.

-And he dreams like most demigods too but tonight it’s not flashbacks or what Grover is doing with his satyr friends. It’s something completely new and very realisitic.

-The sunlight peaks through his windows and forces him awake and he is met with the NYC traffic and noise. He groans and rolls over not wanting to start his day.

- “Percy! Come on, time to get up you don’t want to be late for school.” His mom calls to him. Defeated, Percy gets out of bed and walks out of his bedroom and sees his mom running around in the kitchen with her old bakery outfit on.

-”Mom, what are you doing with your old uniform on?” Percy asks. She hasn’t worked at the bakery for years so it was weird to see her wearing it again.

-”Percy, I don’t have time for your jokes this morning I’m already late as it is. Breakfast is on the counter and your lunch is in the fridge. And please remember I have to close up tonight so you and your father are on your own for dinner.”

-Confused Percy asks, “My father?”

-Sally rolls her eyes and wipes her hands on a dish towel before grabbing her purse and kissing Percy’s cheek. “Someone must be very tired this morning. I’ll see you after work honey.”

-Still confused, Percy nods and goes to get ready for school. He goes and throws on the rest of his clothes and goes to brush his teeth when he sees a new prescription bottle and his mother’s handwriting. Remember to take your pills today :).

-Percy picks up the bottle and looks at the description. The name sounds familiar and he remembers It’s the same ADHD pills his mom refused to give him when he was younger because his teachers thought they would help with his energy and lack of attention. His mom refused because she knew if something were to happen and she wasn’t there those hyperactive impulses could save his life.

-He puts it back down on the table and rubs his eyes, rationalizing that maybe he is just seeing things or something. After getting everything and grabbing his breakfast and lunch, Percy heads out to school.

-Everything seems about right until kids who he has never talked to before come up to him and slap him on his back. He furrows his brows and ask, “Um do I know you?”

-”Ah Perce! Always joking around man. We’ll see you at the swim meet tonight right?”

-Fear grips his chest and Percy combs through his memory trying to remember if he has a meet tonight. His schedule and workload has been so hectic that it’s perfectly possible that he could have forgotten he had a meet.

-”Uh yah. Of course.” He answers and the group of guys smile and walk away. Percy shakes his head still really confused at what is happening and goes to his classes. Everything seems about right, his dyslexia and attention issues are perfectly intune. Between periods, he sneeks to his usual hideout to Iris message Annabeth like they usually do.

-When he goes for his drachma though, he can’t find any and he could have sworn he had some in his backpack. Without any luck finding it, he sighs and hopes Annabeth isn’t too pissed at him for not calling her.

-Percy goes about the rest of his day normally, school and his school work are still as boring as ever. But, it seems his workload has eased up a lot which makes him happy and that stress seems to be relieved.

-Finally, the day is over and Percy goes to his swim locker to get ready for his meet. On the pool deck for warmups, his coach approaches him and says, “Ok Jackson, I put you in the 50 free tonight so hopefully between that and the 100 free they will be easy points to beat these guys. Even if you come dead last in these we will get something out of it.”

-Percy is shocked and a little peeved because he usually does all the relays, the 200 IM and the 500m, all events that he is able to show off but not completely with his powers. He is the best on the team and he doesn’t understand why he is being treated like a liability.

-”Um Coach, I usually do the relays and the 500m at least.” Percy contests.

-”What world are you living in Jackson? Get your ass in the pool.” His coach yells and rattled, Percy listens and dives into the water.

-Usually, the temperature of the water doesn’t affect him because he can choose to feel or or not but as soon as he hits the water, the cold shocks his body and its something he hasn’t really felt before. Once again, Percy is puzzled but takes his first stroke anyway, just expecting that shock as just Percy being tired and forgetting to use his powers when he jumped in.

-But instead of gliding through the water easily and with minimum effort, he feels like he is stuck in syrup and can’t move. The tension in the water is horrible and if that wasn’t the worse part, Percy’s lungs are on fire from not being able to breathe underwater.

-As he comes up and gasps for air, Percy comes to the startlingly discovery that his powers aren’t working and he doesn’t understand what is happening to him. Once he gets to the other side of the pool, he immediately jumps out and races to the locker room.

-”Jackson get back in the water!” His coach screams and Percy ignores him, sprinting to the lockers to catch his breath.

-What is happening to me? Percy wonders and decides that even though Paul doesn’t know too much about being a demigod and everything, he is the only one closest to Percy to help him out and try to figure out what the hell is happening.

- He spots Paul down the hallway and runs to catch up to him.

-”Paul! Paul!” Percy shouts down the hall as he runs towards him.

-Paul quickly turns and looks shocked to see him, “Percy? Are you alright?”

-Percy shakes his head and says quickly, “Paul, I don’t know what’s going on. My powers aren’t working and I don’t know what to do. I’m freaking out.”

-Paul looks absolutely confused for a second and then finally he gets serious and says, “Mr. Jackson, are you high right now?

-Stunned, Percy stutters and answers, “What! Paul, I’m being dead serious. This isn’t funny.”

-Paul’s expression doesn’t change and he just says simply, “Well first of all, I would like to remind you that my name is Mr. Blofis not Paul. And, if you were on some drug right now Mr. Jackson, it would be against school rules and its illegal.”

-Annoyed now, Percy shouts, “Paul, you know I don’t do drugs. Hell, you live with me! My mom and you can check my room if you want. I just need help right now I don’t know why my powers aren’t working.”

-Paul is still emotionless and just says, “Percy, I’ve only met your mother at student teacher conferences. Alright, I know your a good kid so I’ll let this little drug incident go but if I catch you again there will be consequences.” And with that warning he walks away, leaving Percy alone and completely confused and frightened.

-Angry and puzzled, he walks home to the apartment, hoping to see Paul there so he can give him a piece of his mind for the shit he pulled back there. As he is walking past an alley, he hears some noises. Very familiar ones of shouts and growls and as he comes around the corner, he sees a young demigod and a hell-hound going head to head.

-”Hey!” Percy shouts expecting the kid to be grateful that he has backup and-not to toot his own horn- but some pretty good backup. Even though his powers are gone or whatever, Percy still knows how to use a sword. He goes to his jean pocket for Riptide but feels nothing. Panic seizes Percy and he pats around for his familiar pen but he can’t find it.

-The demigod turns around and says “Great, I got a hellhound and some mortal who can see through the fucking Mist. My lucky night. Just stay out of my way or you’ll get both of us killed.”

-Completely bewildered and stunned Percy stays back as the demigod fights the hellhound, trying to figure out what the hell is happening. Maybe this was the god’s way of getting back at him for his little outburst yesterday? But that would be ridiculous, he barely even said anything.

-Finally, the hellhound is dead and the demigod comes over to Percy and says, “Alright what do you want to know. Are you shocked that there’s monsters and shit out there?”

-Percy shakes his head and says, “No I know all of that I’ve killed those things tons of times. Hey listen, I don’t if you’re new to camp or whatever but I’m Percy Jackson.”

-The demigod isn’t impressed and says, “I’ve never heard of you before. And I don’t know how you know about camp. Are you a demigod?”

-Annoyed, Percy answers, “Like I just said I’m Percy Jackson. You know, son of Poseidon.”

-The demigod is still blank faced and Percy rolls his eyes and continues to see if this kid knows anything about who he is. “You know the Percy Jackson who saved Olympus and defeated Kronos. Stopped Gaea a little bit too. Uh Annabeth Chase is my girlfriend? Aw c’mon man seriously?”

-The demigod just shakes his head and says, “ Look I don’t know how you know all of that but I’ve never heard of Percy Jackson. And for your information, Luke Castellan defeated Kronos and Gaea, and he is Annabeth Chase’s boyfriend.”

- A mixed emotion of anger, confusion, fear overwhelms Percy all at once and it’s almost too much to handle. Annabeth is with Luke? No one has heard of me? Luke is still alive? What is happening! All these emotions and questions float around Percy’s head and finally he just says, “I got to go.”

-Ignoring the demigod, Percy sprints home for answers. Thankfully, his apartment’s location hasn’t changed and is the only constant in this insane day. Is he in some alternate reality? Is this a dream or the god’s way at a good laugh?

-When he bursts through his apartment door, he shouts, “Mom!”

-”She’s at work still. About time you got home.” a familiar voice calls from the kitchen and its a voice Percy thought he would never hear again and it almost makes him stop dead in his tracks. But instead, he timidly goes to the kitchen and is shocked to find who is there waiting for him.

-Gabe is standing over the stove with a cooked cheese pizza ready to eat. But he isn’t anything like the Gabe Percy grew up with. Instead of the disgusting smell, strong cologne surrounds Gabe along with a nice suit. He still is pretty big and has a receding hairline but he seems like he actually has a job at a decent business unlike the other Gabe.

-”What are you doing here?” Percy mutters through a clenched jaw and Gabe looks at him like Percy is an idiot, an expression that hasn’t changed.

-”Uh, I live here.” Gabe answers and starts to cut the pizza.

-”Uh no you don’t, where’s Paul?”

-”Who the fuck is Paul?” Gabe questions and Percy responds, “My mom’s husband?”

-”Alright kid, I don’t know what high you’re on today but I’ve been married to your mom since you were one so I’d think I know if she was married to someone else.”

-“What?” Percy’s head spins and he looks for something to explain what is happening right now. His eye catches a picture of him when he was younger and he is in his mom’s arms. Around him are his mom and Gabe in a white dress and suit, looking somewhat happy on their wedding day. This must have been the “father” his mom was telling him his morning.

-”Please don’t tell me your my dad.” Percy pleads while he massages the brim of his nose, trying to relieve this massive headache he has. Everything is completely turned upside down and Gabe is the last person he wants to see. If anything all he wants to do is be tucked up into Annabeth’s warm embrace but apparently in this universe or whatever, she is with Luke, which makes Percy want to gag or punch a wall. He hasn’t decided which one first.

-“Biological no but I have raised you the best I could. Even though you are a selfish brat but your mom makes it better. Her cooking and body are too good to leave.”

-And there’s the Gabe that Percy grew up with and hates.

-Percy glares at Gabe and mutters, “Get the fuck out of my house.”

-Gabe shoots back an intimidating look and if Percy was younger, he might have ran away. But Percy has seen far worse than Gabe, which is something to say considering for years Gabe was the worst monster Percy could thing of.

-”Didn’t I already beat you enough last week to teach you a lesson? Or are you too stoned right now to remember punk?” Gabe threatens as he slowly walks over to Percy.

-Percy also wants to know why everyone thinks he is on something but that’s not really important.

-”Well you obviously are losing your hearing then old man because you didn’t hear me the first time. Get the fuck out.”

-Gabe smiles and throws a punch, a punch Percy was anticipating but he is surprised to see that his demigod reflexes are much slower. As he ducks and misses another punch, Percy swings his arm and lands a punch, hitting Gabe square in the jaw.

-Gabe stutters back and holds his face and mutters, “You’re going to get it now punk.”

-But just as Percy dodges another punch from Gabe, his slow reflexes get the best out of him and Gabe punches his nose, hard. He feels his bones break and blood sprays out of his newly broken nose. He also his nose as blood soaks his hand and Gabe punches him again in his side, causing Percy to collapse on the ground.

-Just like he did in his childhood, Gabe kicks Percy hard in his ribs as Percy curls up into a ball, trying to defend himself. He is disappointed in his lack of skills and when the blows stop, he slowly lifts his head to see Gabe standing over him.

-”I’m going to make sure you’re going to remember this.” Gabe hammers down another blow and suddenly, Percy is startled awake.

-Panting heavily, he looks around his room and tries to get his bearings. It’s his room that’s for sure but what world he is in, he is less sure of.

-He looks to his nightstand and breathes a sigh of relief when he sees the picture of him, his mom and Paul at the beach last summer before he went missing. Next to it, Riptide is capped and in pen form just like it always is when he goes to bed.

-After realizing it was just a very realistic dream, he lays his head back down on the pillow and wipes the sweat from his forehead.

-”I know you hate this life sometimes, but it could be worse Percy.” a voice speaks from the shadows and Percy jumps and goes for Riptide on his nightstand. He presses the pen and the sword bursts to life.

-When the figure emerges from the shadows, Percy realizes it’s his dad and caps Riptide again.

-“Gods you scared the shit out of me, Dad.” Percy calms down and looks at his father who he hasn’t seen since the battle with Gaea and hasn’t really spoken to since he went missing.

-”I apologize for the startle. I felt like it was time we talked since I know we haven’t in a while with everything going on.” Poseidon says and walks over to Percy’s dresser and leans against it.

-“Well I’ve been busy trying to catch up around here. Haven’t really had time for a chat.” Percy answers and sighs.

-”I know you’re mad at the gods, Percy. You have been through more than any demigod has been through and I am sorry for that, son. And I know readjusting here hasn’t been the easiest either.”

-Percy nods and stays silent, unsure about what to say to his father. Sure, he is mad at the gods but he is still confused and a little unsettled about the dream he had. He also isn’t sure if he is mad at his father for just being a god or mad because he is Percy’s father and Percy hasn’t been feeling like his father appreciates his son’s sacrifices.

-”I know you are hurting and angry. Your outburst was just a fraction of the pain you must be going through and although I obviously can understand and am empathetic to your grievances, the other gods want to make sure you understand that although being a demigod, especially a demigod like yourself, is hard, it could be worse. You could have never met the love of your life, make your life-long friends, been able to get rid of Gabe or even have met Paul for your mother if you were never a demigod. Everything that has happened to you Percy has happened for a reason that only the Fates know.”

-Poseidon continues, “I also just want you to know Percy that I am proud of you. Truly, I am. I could've asked for a more heroic and strong son. And I am sorry if you feel like I wasn’t worried or upset. The pain of not knowing where you were those eight months was something that I can’t even describe to you. But I want you to know that through all of these trials, you have made me very proud.”

-Percy smiles a little and says, “Thanks Dad.”

#au #percy jackson #Percy Jackson and the Olympians #percabeth #percy jackson fanfiction #my blog #My writing #I wasn't really sure where i was going with this #word and feeling vomit all over

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copperbadge · 8 years

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Hi Sam! Random question I've always wondered about, which I think you might be eminently qualified to answer given what you've mentioned about your research at work: how accurate do you think the net worth estimates of particularly wealthy people are? For example, one site suggests that RDJ's net worth is $240 million. Based on what you've learned in your research of the super rich, is that likely to be way overstated, probably about right, or possibly even under-estimated?

Estimating net worths of people is literally what I do for a living so you are RIGHT TO ASK ME THIS, Anon.

Here’s the short answer: It’s probably not that wrong. If you want to know why I say “not that wrong” instead of “correct”, read onwards! :D

The long answer is complicated. In part it depends on who’s doing the estimating; automated wealth estimations are available for pay through a number of sources (WealthEngine, for example) but are carried out by computer and have no sense of nuance, so they’re not very good. Forbes, on the other hand, has people with financial training doing the estimating, and they are aware of stuff like whether someone’s real estate is going to realistically reflect their wealth (Richard Branson: yes, because he owns an island. RDJ? Probably not, for reasons I’ll get into in a second) but Forbes also tends to base its current estimates on past estimates so you have to tread carefully. Journalism that falls somewhere in the middle -- it’s a person doing the estimating, but perhaps not a person with extensive financial research/document training -- are usually in the ballpark, but they try not to get too granular. Then again they may have expertise in entertainment earning, which in this case could be a help.

But let’s talk about estimation itself. There are certain things we can never know for sure: bank balances, for example. Journalists who do this kind of work generally have to stick to public record, which can be informative, but is never the full picture. And a lot of people will discuss their net worth, but we have no way of knowing if they’re being truthful. Plus, for the work I do, our estimates are not precise: they fall under “bands” that encompass X value to Y value -- net worth of $1M to $4.9M, for example. And after $1B we basically give up because how much detail do you need once someone’s a billionaire?

So, estimation. There is a readmore below! Read more!

Real estate is one source we always go to, because until you hit a certain wealth level, real estate is a pretty good metric of wealth -- the value of your home, whether you own multiple homes, how you purchased those homes, all of that is (relatively) public data. It can get tricky because a lot of people with high wealth will purchase property through a trust -- I’d have to check my database but I believe RDJ’s home is held in his and Susan Downey’s name, but we know he has a ranch somewhere and I think that’s held in a trust under some other name. Chris Evans, who apparently got really exceptional advice from someone, has property in LA but it’s held in trust and the address of the trust is his agent’s office, so he’s not findable in California by public record search. Or wasn’t when I looked him up for kicks a few years ago.

Also, after a certain point real estate stops being useful, because most people don’t need to own more than five or six homes (we call these people Global City Residents because the homes tend to be scattered wherever they do business or play -- Aspen, New York, California, London, Paris, Hong Kong, Beijing, Tokyo, usually one in Switzerland somewhere, sometimes Mumbai, etc.) If someone owns multiple homes worth multiple millions each...we can set a baseline for what they’re worth, which is all we really need. Setting a ceiling is harder. But when someone is THAT wealthy, generally there are other indicators, so real estate becomes one data point among many. RDJ is super wealthy, but he’s not at THAT level of wealth, and likely won’t ever be, because that’s the province of hedge fund managers and tech gurus.

There’s also the question of liquidity and fluctuating asset values -- RDJ, I know just from random reading I’ve done, has formed his own production company with his wife, and they try to be the people who produce his movies so that the two of them aren’t separated for long periods of time (there is some speculation that this is why there’s been a kibosh on new Iron Man and Sherlock Holmes films but I don’t have enough inside Hollywood info to confirm that). But the upshot is that he probably has some of his net worth tied up in the production company which in turn means he is tying up some of his net worth investing in films, which is a super risky business. So do you count the potential net worth he has tied up in films? It’s not liquid, and it might vanish if a movie he produces flops. (I don’t know if The Judge was a flop. It was indy, so the numbers change.) But it might show a return if the movie is a success, and it will become liquid again if the movie breaks even.

With someone like RDJ, who has made his payout from films relatively public, we can estimate some of his income, but again, his income is going to fluctuate from film to film. In his case that’s not a huge deal because he obviously has a minimum income he’s going to make per film, and that’s going to be public in the entertainment papers, but with someone like a just-starting-out Chris Evans of ten years ago, his income might be more heavily based on how the film did, and there’s no way to know that information because he’s not Chris Evans yet, he’s just the guy from What’s Your Number. Also even now he likes to do indy movies and produce his own films so he can do the kind of movie he likes, and those generally aren’t going to make a lot of money, and if they do we have no way of telling what he made.

ANWYAY

It’s much easier to estimate the net worth of people who work in investment at the upper levels, or as c-suite (management) of public companies, because not only do you have real estate data (which is frequently what we use as a rough metric of net worth -- there are formulas involved) but you also have public statements (Annual Reports or annual Proxy statements) that tell you how much they earn and how much stock they hold, which is a great indicator of wealth, even if it’s not currently liquid. If someone has a zillion shares of Google stock, they are astronomically wealthy, and they can trade in that illiquid wealth for liquid wealth any time they please. And that’s usually public on some level, because they have to file that shit with the SEC.

There’s obviously a lot of research involved. Oh, the SEC filings I read.

So offhand I couldn’t say what RDJ is worth, since I would want to look at his property holdings and news reports of his income from his films. I’d want to see if he’s talked about putting money into any investment vehicles like a family office or a hedge fund. I’d want to see what his wife’s professional activity has been like in the past few years, since when they met she was already a wealthy film industry pro in her own right. They have a charitable foundation, so I’d want to see if it has filed any 990 forms yet (probably not, it’s too new). I’d be googling for the kefuffle in the news a few years ago where RDJ talked about what he made and how he was mad his costars weren’t making the same amount. I’d want to see how his last few films have done at the box office, particularly internationally, and do some research into whether he co-produced, and if not, what a standard lead star’s percentage of box office might be.

Off the record, I’d say $240M probably hits the mark. He’s a big deal star and he can command big deal prices, Avengers has been astonishingly lucrative as a franchise, and he’s a savvy guy and I would imagine he’s got some good investments going. If I were researching him, $240M would be a good number, smack in the middle of one of our net-worth bands, and would mean we can confidently say “Well he can give X amount, and it’s highly unlikely he’s actually worth over $500M which would put him into Y amount territory.”

Sooooo yeah. $240M is entirely possible for him, but I wouldn’t tell my boss he’s worth that much just based on the article. :D

#Anonymous

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