the anons are testing me this week ya know

A LOT of new drama happened last week.

As usual, I was minding my business, discussing ableism, and sending a few individual messages out BEGGING for help in the kindest, most humble, most apologetic way I could, because no one would defend me.

After I got dogpiled and harassed for comments that were 100% misinterpreted, and I was publicly told to kms, I found out why no one would help me. I think that was Tuesday, 4/26, and the events of that day made me decide that I was going to check out for good. I said goodbye to my husband, and he rushed home before I could finish my plan. I saw my shrink the next day and she and I both agreed that I should probably be in the hospital. But it would financially destroy us. So she took a risk and made me sign an “I won’t unalive myself” contract in exchange for my husband staying home with me and a rx for Lithium.

I’m happy to say that the Lithium has controlled the intrusive thoughts and the active SI. It’s even helped with the passive SI. I still am afraid of life, so I’m doing what I can to sleep as much as possible, being being conscious is emotionally painful. All I can do is hope it gets better. But if you want to know what happened that brought me to this state, check out the video linked in this post.

I also want to say that the Yellowjackets fandom is a disaster and it’s all because of 1 person who manipulated so many. That isn’t an excuse for what people did to me, but this woman has hurt so many people. I’m open to talking to any Yellowjackets fans about how to make the fandom safer and more compassionate. Because from what I’ve seen, it really looks like I’m the only person who wants that and has tried to make that happen.

MAG 196 Relisten

Activity on my first listen: Slow Tuesday at work.

ANNABELLE: "Perhaps… that’s because you didn’t seem to like what I had to say." MARTIN: "No, it’s because you weren’t really saying anything, were you? It was all just ominous foreshadowing again." Lol, poor Martin, always surrounded by ominous people XD

MARTIN: "Hey, this is your magic bubble. You’re the one making it so that we’re, like, actually walking, walking all the way to Oxford. So sorry I’ve got to sit down occasionally, like a human." Isn't Oxford a bit far from London to simply walk there? You know what, let's find out! Okay, Google maps, starting at the Chelsea College of Art and Design and our destination is 105 Hill Top Road in Oxford... 90 km, 19 hours. That's actually not that bad, they'll reach that in two days. I hope Martin has his camper backpack with him.

ANNABELLE: "And the book breaks?" MARTIN: "It’s not like you’re entertaining company." ANNABELLE: "And it’s nothing to do with the fact that any lost souls in our area also get a break from their torment? Hmmm?" First, I imagine Martin has a camping chair and a little parasol with him and every now and then he unpacks them, gets comfortable and starts reading. Second, OMG aren’t the victims of the domains they come across super confused?? One moment they facing their worst nightmares and suddenly there's sunshine and all their bones ache and they are tired, oh actually, they all probably fell asleep immediately... Otherwise, I'd be asking where are they. Why didn’t they spot the obvious tourists and walk with them in a little parade, all following the camera. (Don't mind me rambling here, I'm just having fun with silly little scenarios.)

MARTIN: "… So what if it does? Is that a problem?" ANNABELLE: "Actually, I find it very reassuring." Cause she wants him to want to save everybody.

ANNABELLE: "No. I did it in his sleep. He’d always been accommodating, so… I wanted to honour his wishes." Was there a superior motive? In the end, if she stole the camera and left him alive and well at Upton House, he'd just be integrated in the fear ecosystem, become either a watcher or watched. And either way, he wouldn't be able to leave his domain to try to stop anything. Hm... can watchers call out to Jon? So if Salesa ended up to be a watcher and could call out to Jon, he could have warned them about Annabelle at best. And only on short notice cause he wouldn't be able to reach Jon when they were in the tunnels, it would have had to be while they were inside the Panopticon. So somehow I think it wouldn’t have mattered if Salesa lived or died, not for our story.

MARTIN: "That’s a shame." ANNABELLE: "Is it?" MARTIN: "I mean… he seemed nice. To us at least." ANNABELLE: "And what of his victims? The people whose lives he destroyed?" Hehe, thinking about Martin wanting Fairchild dead because he threatened him to throw him off a rollercoaster and was a bit of a menace to talk to XD But tbf, Fairchild actively tormented people and wanted to torment them. Salesa was more of an accomplice. Selling all those cursed items (to the rich and arrogant,.. aaaand I’m thinking about MAG 155 again here) instead of sealing them away somehow or even destroying them.

MARTIN: [Sighs] "Is it much further?" Haha, this is the third time now that we hear him asking how much further it is XD

MARTIN: "Hey, is that – ? You told me not to bring a tape recorder." ANNABELLE: "No. I said we wouldn’t need one. We have plenty of tapes." Yeaaaah, already said it in MAG 161, the change of the logo for season 5 gave away the whole "the tapes are web" thing. I mean, it looks really cool and if you listen on a podcatcher it's all the same to you, it's the web tape logo right from the start, so I think it's better and not such a dead giveaway. I listened on YT the first time so I also saw the change in the logo and based my conclusion on the change.

ANNABELLE: "Do take a seat." [MARTIN PUTS DOWN BAG, TAKES A SEAT] Is it finally a comfortable seat?

ANNABELLE: "I’ve written you a statement. I would like for you to read it." Actually I was thinking, why does Martin read it. Why not Annabelle? Is there a canon-reason for that or was it something behind the scenes?

Okay, what about the "Stop no"s, just cross it out and start again, Annabelle, it's not that hard! xD

"immolated by the Chosen of the Ravening Burn." Oh, Ravening Burn, I like that title! Totally forgot about that.

"It was not wide enough to allow true passage, not yet, save for the odd accident." MAG 114.

ANNABELLE: "Oh, it’s so much more than a crack now. It’s an aching hole, a gaping wound in the very fabric of our world." I can't believe this line made it into the podcast... xD

ANNABELLE: [Wistful] "It’s a real shame, you know. I was so looking forward to filling you with spiders." I love that the initial plot of Web!Martin still made it somehow into the podcast. The self-awareness!

Also, Annabelle telling Martin of her plan is the moment Martin realizes this little stunt of him was extremely dangerous. Before that he was always annoyed and snappy, not really grasping the severity of the situation. For him, I mean. Not just for the sake of saving Jon.

ANNABELLE: "Because you always managed to get what you wanted through smiles and shrugs and stammerings that weren’t nearly as awkward as they seemed." [SMALL SOUND OF MARTIN’S CONCESSION TO THE POINT] MARTIN: "Point taken." I’m, sure y'all know what traditional narcissism is, but have you ever heard of nontraditional narcissism? Narcissism is probably more fueled by insecurity than an inflated ego and self-centeredness. While a traditional narcissist will push others down to get validation and keep their insecurity in check, nontraditional narcissists will put others on a pedestal. They’ll put themselves down in front of others, quietly manipulating them into giving them validation ("Oh wow, the XY you made looks so amazing, I will never be as good as you" - "Nooo, your stuff is amazing too!"). Not out-rightly saying Martin is a nontraditinal narcissist, but there definitely are tendencies in these kind of manipulation... I have them as well, after this line of Annabelle I did recognize this in myself and then with the knowledge of nontraditional narcissism I try to stop it when I catch myself doing it.

MARTIN: "Okay, let’s try a different question. What was your plan?" ANNABELLE: "I was going to snatch you away. Lure you both into this web, and then take you. Drive him to despair, so that when you returned to him, bulging, and talking in a thousand tiny voices, it would drive him to a final push." Since JonMartin wasn't planned to be canon at first and Web!Martin in return actually was, this would still have been a cool revelation and a wonderful surprised Pikachu betrayal, but not quite such a knife to the heart (heh, foreshadowing...) if they were together. God, JonMartin being a thing and Web!Martin happening would have been so unbelievably cruel... proper broken heart syndrome material... I like the way it eventually came together. Web!Martin still is valid and great, but from what I know about it I think I do prefer what ended up to be canon.

MARTIN: "And now?" ANNABELLE: [Sighs] "Your bond is too complicated. I couldn’t drive that kind of rift between you now. I’ve considered every angle, examined every cause and effect, and have finally come to the conclusion that I… [sighs] I need to tell you the truth, to explain things." Ha, JonMartin is stronger than the Web! (Well, stronger than that one plan at least.) Also, lol, sounds like Annabelle wrote a meta about their ship...

[WIND CONTINUES AS THUNDEROUS RUMBLES AND BUZZING INSECTS INTRUDE AUDITORILY] Sounds of a thousand gigantic spiders!!! I never understood, why this buzz sound is used for spiders, isn't that from a cricket or cicada or something? (The one here in TMA is not that stereotypical we hear in movies, but still.) (Also, of course spiders are not insects, they're arachnids.)

ARCHIVIST ON TAPE "So just listen –" [CLICK] [CLICK] "Listen, Martin, you should know –" [CLICK] [CLICK] "Now, listen to me, Martin, li-listen –" [CLICK] MAG 160, MAG 129 and MAG 159. Elias, the mass-ritual, which was crucial to the Web’s plan and Jon’s only purpose in all of this. And then talking to Martin twice. MAG 129 being the anchor episode. And MAG 159 of course when Jon went after Martin to get him out of the Lonely.

MARTIN: "What? All this time, through all of this, it, it was just you spying on us?" ANNABELLE: "Oh Martin. You have no idea who’s listening, do you?" Forth wall break?

@a-mag-a-day

Not long now until the BIG day…… I think I am starting to get excited 😜, now that really is a big surprise to me.

It’s been a busy week, it was the last two sessions of radiotherapy and I had my final consultation with the radiotherapy doctor. I said I was going to gradually re-introduce “forbidden” foods and did I……… well I had been dreaming of chicken fajitas and I had those on Wednesday so I guess not 😂.

The weather hasn’t been too good, lots of rain and mist with a smattering of sunshine thrown in. I never heard back from the roofer so I guess I will just have to be patient and wait for the dry weather to arrive when he will come and fix the problem.

I encountered a problem with my Orange TV Box, I was ready to watch the third episode of “Vera” on Sunday evening, however when it came on it didn’t switch to English language as usual. I rang Orange on Monday to try to get it sorted and at one point I thought we had solved it but no. The lady rang me back on Tuesday and we agreed there must be a problem with the box. I was told to take the box back to an Orange shop. Now we don’t have one in town and the nearest is 100 km round trip 🙄 anyway I went on Wednesday in the pouring rain. It’s years since I had been in the centre of Chaumont and I was surprised by the number of shops that were there. I got the new box and in the afternoon decided to set it up. Imagine my surprise when, set up, I had no sound or vision. I made a call again to Orange and after speaking to a man twice (without the problem being solved) I rang again and got a lady who did a lot of tests at her end and got it all sorted, even the problem with getting programmes in the original version. How pleased I am but very sad that I missed Vera in English.

Pauline and I decided to go to the cinema on Thursday night, to see Napoleon. The start time was 8:15 and it ran for 2.5 hours so I was going to have a really late night. We both enjoyed it very much and after picking up the flyer decided there was another film we would like to see. “La Tresse” (The Braid) so we are going on Monday evening, start time that night is 9pm!

I went to the cinema again on Friday evening (alone) the flyer said the movie was on at 18:30 and ran for 1h 27m so I would be home after 8pm. The film was in original version and looking at the actors I should have realised not in English, it was in Japanese 😂😂 with French subtitles. I stayed because the title was “Perfect Days” and the soundtrack included Perfect Day by Lou Reed with the talented Mick Ronson on piano, songs by The Animals (can you guess which song?) and Nina Simone to name but a few. I sang along (not loudly) but obviously loud enough that the lady two rows in front said to me at the end “English songs, for you to sing”. I wasn’t too concerned about being heard, there were only 4 of us watching the movie. Any thoughts of getting home just after 8pm were dashed as I checked my watch at 8:15 and the film was still in “full flow”. It was 9pm when I finally got home so it was straight to bed for me!

This week “The Ex-Graduate” has been unwell and couldn’t go into work for two days. It sounds as if she had ‘flu symptoms. On Friday she had an interview for a “real” job in her chosen profession. She messaged to say the interview was rotten, she was so nervous and didn’t know what she had rambled on about. Then later messaged to say she had been offered the job! Wow, good on you girl. I was so excited I couldn’t type my congratulations so rang her instead. How wonderful 🥳🥳.

“The Trainee Solicitor” has had another busy week and also a busy weekend. He is catching up with pals before Xmas, was at his work Christmas “do” last night and has usual weekend activities like good shopping to get sorted 😳.

The person formerly known as “The Daddy” now to be known as “The Photographer” due to his activities at Scarborough Athletic FC and also advertisements for clothes firms, restaurants etc. He also has had a busy weekend, my gorgeous grandchildren are with him and it was a Saturday off work so it meant he spent longer with the children. He went to his work Christmas “do” last night but reckoned on being home by 9pm (even with an hours drive). Blimey, not the work Christmas do I remember, where it involved all night, quite a few beverages and good food. Apparently the children are now being taken to the cinema to see a recorded panto. Funnily enough, I was looking at my legs this morning and remembering back to when I played the Prince in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs wearing my principle boy outfit, exposing a lot of leg, I think I have those shapely legs back again (my thoughts entirely) 😂😂.

Anie came to see me on Wednesday evening bearing Christmas gifts. She was thrilled with the Christmas cactus and when I handed over two other presents she exclaimed it was too much. How much is too much I ask myself, she has been an absolute wonder while I have been ill as have lots of other friends. She was leaving to stay with her son on Thursday, he would then take her to CDG airport for her flight on Friday. So she will be there now, with her family and granddaughter, Blanche.

Monique didn’t get to see me this week either as she had to go to physio for her sciatica. She is going to come down on Monday afternoon, I just hope her plant is ok and will last through Christmas and New Year.

I have just had a message from a lady who attended the knitting group before Covid. She has extended an open invitation to me, to visit her at home. How very kind. I guess I will be stuffing dates, making mince pies and peppermint creams to take with me.

I can’t see there being much knitting done between now and Christmas Day.

I took a watch to the jewellers in town yesterday for a new battery. While I was there I spotted a rather beautiful ruby necklace. Now my grandmother’s engagement ring has a beautiful red stone in and I am going to take the ring to see how close the colour is to the stone on the necklace and I may well buy the necklace. It has been made by the jeweller so I reckon it will be a “one off”. Of course I will have to try the necklace to make sure it has a long enough chain etc but with all the weight I have lost this year I think my neck size has reduced too.

Now to the music part of the blog, I thought a quick look at the Christmas number 1’s in the UK might be a good place to look but goodness me, I couldn’t really pick a good one out of them. So instead let me pick two songs from an artist who’s music I have loved since the sixties. The first is from 1970 and the second from 1976 the songs are by Diana Ross and the first is “Reach out and Touch” and the second is “Love Hangover” as I have said previously it’s not just the lyrics but the music that appeals to me on a lot of my choice of records.

The photos this week were taken in Chaumont (in the pouring rain).

⚠️BLOG HIJACK⚠️ (day 50)

Everybody, please stay calm, raise your hands in the air and one-by-one leave a like in the comment section in an orderly fashion. Roger is taking over! 🚨

Yesterday (25 april) began with another trip to the Spar in Abbotsbury. As I, Roger, had forgotten to buy bread as Ella requested and opted for cider instead, we were among the first customers of the lovely neighbourhood supermarket in this pittoresque town at 7 am.

The town looked like something straight out of a BBC murder detective. Luckily, no bodies were found, but spending the night on the chapel hill was rather creepy, especially since we were sleeping next to a forest full of crows. For your information, a group of crows is called a "conspiracy" 👀.

We set off well-motivated to reach Portland around 2 pm. The day before we pushed ourselves to our limits, or atleast mine, to ensure we could. A few passerby told us Portland was beautiful, and since the peninsula looked densily populated on the map and there were many holiday parks nearby, we thought it would be a tourist heaven — perfect for our well-deserved afternoon off.

As we were walking to Portland, a pretty yet not as spectular scenary as compared to the landscapes we had seen in the days before, we were dreaming of an AirBnB with a bathtub. We walked through fields, saw a pheasant (a bird I had never seen in real life before) and even spotted a herd of fully-wooled sheep.

The path became increasingly muddy the further we got. I was particularly excited to walk trough a "danger zone", a military practice area. Ella mentioned she had seen quite a few of them already, but since it was my first time, I didn't know what to expect. Except for a few danger signs and an abandoned military post there was nothing to see. No shells or unexploded bombs on the ground :(.

We pushed ourselves to walk as far as possible before our break around 12 pm. After all, the further we would walk, the earlier we could drink piña coladas in the sun on the white sandy beaches of Portland!

We contacted an AirBnB in the historical center of Portland, and with 12 km behind us and our bellies full after lunch, we set out to the peninsula. However, the more we approached Portland, the more industrial it looked. The bridge connecting Portland with the mainland was full of traffic, and instead of the palm trees we conjured in our head by that time, we saw a Lidl and an industrial port on the other end of it...

When we arrived in Portland, we were a bit, how to put this nicely, dissapointed. There was no city center, let alone a historical one, no attractive beaches, no palm trees and no sun-tanned girls dancing the hula.

What we did find was a nice, yet avarage, English working-class town decorated with the occasional St. George flag. Disillusioned, we entered a pub called The Britania which was already inhabited by a few locals having their Tuesday 2 pm Guinness. The AirBnB host canceled the reservation, and my leg started to hurt quite badly from the strain of the last few days. Quite the situation we had to deal with, as we still didn't know where to sleep.

After going through some options, we decided to camp out in the wild again, no matter how tired and unshowered we were. We bought some food in the supermarket and got back on the trail.

At least we thought so. Portland doesn't have any architectural eye candy, but does have some bueatiful cliffs. Beautiful, if you are on the right side of them. Sadly, we had walked the wrong way, along the beach and not on top of the cliffs, and my left leg was hurting more and more.

Ella lent me her walking poles and we made our way up to the top of the cliffs. As we strolled through a statue park, I hobbled alongside her, my leg aching more and more. After a while, we finally stumbled upon an even patch of ground where we could pitch our tent. I must admit, as soon as we saw the location, we fell in love; It was only 10 metres from the cliffs edge and boasted a breathtaking view of the sea, the cliffs and the stretch we hiked that day.

In the end, it was a challenging day that ended on a high note. Though we didn't get the afternoon of we had anticipated, we managed to cope with the situation together. All's well that ends well.

June 19 PM June 21 Afternoon

June 19 afternoon

We went directly to Germany on the Autobahn and decided to drive to Freiburg to look around. We missed the turn to the city center and tried to find our way back, but the road was under construction and the GPS could not reroute us.We spent 20 minutes wandering around knowing which direction to go but being stymied by one-way streets and pedestrian areas. We finally found the city center and parked to walk around.It is a very interesting old city but much more crowded and I remember 1982. We heard someone speaking English and started a conversation with Jack and Gloria from Pennsylvania. Their son lives in Heidelberg with his wife and daughter. We kept finding things that were common to us in about 30-minutes chatting in front of the facade of an old department store, to translate loosely. We ended up exchanging cards and hope we will meet them someday in Oklahoma or in Pennsylvania. The trip onward to the Gross-Gerau tomorrow hotel was uneventful, except for several traffic jams on the way. In between the traffic jams I was able to get up to speed at 195 km an hour a couple of times.  Elizabeth said it was “eventful” for her.We had a nice meal in a hotel restaurant called Zum Jaegerhof not far from the hotel. 

June 20

It was very hot in the night. I think it was supposed to be in the 80′s and it felt like it.   We thought we booked a hotel with air conditioning. Who would have thought a Best Western hotel would not have air conditioning.  We cadged a fan from the manager and that was a little bit of help.  By the time we woke up, the temperature dropped over 25 degrees and then felt better. After breakfast we decided to take advantage of a special offer to ride any public transportation anywhere in Germany for a month for only €9.  We bought a €9 pass for each of us to go to downtown Frankfurt. It was very chilly and the temperature was about  65 downtown. We had a nice time walking around the old town of Frankfurt and then we took the subway to the old opera house. It started to drizzle and we had seen what we wanted to see downtown, so we took the subway and the S-Bahn back to Gross-Gerau. We knew we had to find another hotel for tomorrow night. What we didn't know was that Frankfurt was having 3 major fairs at the convention center downtown. The prices of rooms went up by three times at the airport. Finding one was even more impossible.  We decided to have a Greek meal at the restaurant in our old hometown of Beuttelborn. Unfortunately, it is only open on Tuesdays to Saturdays for take out so we went back to a Greek restaurant I had been to 40 years ago. You can’t make up what I'm about to say right now.  The waiter wanted us to sit outside but we didn't want to sit in the smoking area. We finally got through to him and he seated us inside. We were passed off to another waiter who got us a beer and two shots of annisette to clean our palettes. We had a little difficulty explaining that we didn't want two big meals. We wanted one meal to share. He finally got it and we settled for a meal that would probably be too much for us and it was, barely.  We left the chicken breast and ate the other typically Greek meat with great tzatziki sauce. The waiter says I don't know how big your stomach is, I only know how big mine is in German. I told him my stomach was not as big as his, in German.  Anyway, we ordered our meal and when he brought it over he said in English, “enjoy your meal”.  I debated how to handle that and decided to do it with kindness. When he came back I told him his English was very good and my German wasn't too bad because I had lived in Germany for 11 years. That started a really interesting conversation. He thought we were still living in Germany. To make a long story short, which is hard for me. “Sam” Is from Greece and he is a major World War II history buff. We were talking about our trip and he told us he had just come back from D-Day celebrations in Normandy during the D-Day celebrations. While we were enjoying the end of our meal, he brought a picture of himself on his phone when he was in the army at 19 years old. I told him about my military service and he told me how much he loves the history of The Americans and World War II. He asked  if I knew about the clickers that the 101st airborne used. We shared pictures of ourselves visiting Normandy and I showed him a picture of me in my class A uniform. It was a very very interesting conversation and before I knew it, he brought me a replica of the cricket that the 101st Airborne used to identify each other. I thought he was just showing it to me, but he says since he has two, I should have one as well.  We continued to have a very nice chat about things in general. He wants me to send him a postcard from America, not an email.  You just don't get those kinds of experiences on a tour when you are being shuttled from restaurant to restaurant of a preferred customer of the cruise lines.  If we had not had the flexibility to go to another restaurant after the original one was closed, we would have missed out on this particular experience. At the end of the evening we were definitely on a first name basis and Sam asked if we’d like to have another anisette shot before we go. We said sure and the other waiter brought it to us before we left.

Jan 21

We got out of the hotel in plenty of time to fill the car up with gas so it would be full when we got to the airport. Unfortunately we were led to the wrong car drop off point and had to drive around the airport so the car was not quite full when we turned it in.  It was also 5 minutes late according to the original contract but we didn't pick up the original car until an hour and a half later which was not reflected in the computer system. The man was very nice and told us he was  going to backdate it to 10:27, so we wouldn't be charged for another day. He checked the car over and gave us the OK, but he had to fill out the paperwork manually because the computer said he couldn't do it electronically because he had delayed the final entries. He did say he was going to have to charge me for filling up the car and I forgot to tell him that was originally half full when I got it because he was being so nice to help about the extra day. When he finished the paperwork (literally and gave us a copy), he said you pay about 12 to 15 euros for the fuel but save 50 euros for the extra day. When we told him we are staying at the Hilton, he said let me show you how to get there and took time to walk to the end of the garage and show us exactly which elevator to get on and what floor to get off on.  We didn't see anyone else getting that kind of service. I guess we look so helpless or he did it out of respect for our age.  He was very impressed that we had traveled so far when he looked at the mileage we had driven and all the things we had seen.   Maybe that's why he helped us so much. It doesn't matter, it just happens.

We got to the Hilton two hours earlier than normal check in time. While we were talking to Christin at the Check-in desk, she said if we wanted to check in now, it will be €39 extra. She said if you come back around 1, I can let you in without extra charge and store your bags for you while you are wandering the airport.  What a deal. We had lunch in the airport area and went back at 1:00 to check-in. No problem. The room is very nice. We decided to find out exactly where to go for the flight tomorrow morning. We walked all the way to the shuttle that takes you to Terminal 2. I don’t like to leave anything to chance.

We will have spaghetti carbonara one more time before we leave tonight for dinner. We will rise and shine early tomorrow morning and go to the American Airlines Lounge before the flight and hope to get a bite to eat.

This will probably be the last major text upload and I will try and send some pictures later tonight. We look forward to getting home even though we had a great time over here. 

Week 6 - Kiwi Chronicles

G’day folks! 

New Zealand, my god.

It was everything I had hoped for and so so much more. More than I could ever put into words. But it’d be a shame not to try… Here’s my week:

On Tuesday we hopped off AJ Hackett’s Nevis Bungee jump. Standing from a suspended cable car over a ravine nearly 140 meters or 450 feet above the rocky stream below. The world’s first bungee jumping company gave us an experience that makes my palms sweaty just thinking about it. 

The pounding Pitbull tunes… then the count down, 5,4,3,2,1…

Goodbye Queenstown: We began our last day here with a last-minute booking at the spa pools of Onsen for a relaxing hour to reminisce on all that had already happened and all that lay ahead for us.

After checking out of our hostel, we made our rounds through downtown Queenstown, shopping and renting the food and gear that could get us through the upcoming camping excursion. New Zealand has twelve “Great Walks”, these are typically multi-day hiking trips that span all parts of the north and south island. We decided to follow Kepler Track located outside the town of Te Anau. It is a three-day, two-night, 60 km Great Walk that cuts through the Fiordland National Park. 

The food list was focused on maximizing calories while minimizing cost, space, and required prep. This meant a lot of canned meats, rice, wraps, peanut butter, and jelly. 

We drove to the trailhead and assembled our packs, making judgment calls on clothes, food, tents, and who carries what. Finally, we set off with two hours of sun remaining.

The trail unraveled into a living canopy of moss and streams that felt at times like a set on Lord of the Rings. We made it to the camp with a little time to spare, just enough to get our tents up and bring our food supplies to the bench. Cooking in the dark was no easy feat. But the whispers of the company, hushed music, and countless stars outlining the night sky above kept us working through the night.  

Thursday: the best hike of my life.

We woke up, slept in a little late, and got to work immediately. Even so, we didn’t end up heading off until around 10:30. This day's hike is 13 miles long but with all of the Kepler Track’s change in altitude. The first part of the hike was a climb up through the canopy. From there we took a gruelling climb up and over multiple mountain peaks over five hours. Some of the most stunning natural views I’ve ever seen, I couldn’t recommend this hike more. Everyone we met on the way greeted us with a smile and salutation. We did get a “you’re not even close” early on in the hike when we first got above the canopy but other than that the other hikers were overwhelmingly encouraging and friendly.  

We had our first encounter with the Kea, a large majestic bird native to the area that the rangers and locals treat reverently. In fact, at one stop, a ranger told us that it was our job to get out of the way of the Kea rather than to shoo it off. Of course, 30 minutes later this exact situation happened when we left our bags at the base of a scenic lookout that branched off the hike. We came back down to find a Kea picking around and investigating our packs. 

After hiking for over 11 hours we made it into camp just as the sun was sinking below the mountains. We broke our group into those setting up camp and those cooking food. But, much to our dismay, we found that we had left a night’s worth of canned chicken in the car. Luckily, we overpacked in other areas so our dinner instead became rice and a handful of tuna cans with some ripped-up lunch meat sprinkled in with some all-purpose seasoning. Pack more than you think you will eat!

That night I was awoken several times to rustling and scratching, I looked outside to see both a Kiwi and a Kea making concerted efforts to break into our tents. A few slaps on the tent wall were enough to send them running, but not for long. In the morning the damage was assessed and the kiwi had broken through the netting in two areas and the Kea had ripped a hole into the side of the tent near our heads.  YOIKES. The tents were of course rented so we swore to find sewing materials when we got back to civilization. 

The Kiwi in question the morning after.

Our last day of the hike was another 13 miles but with pretty much flat ground the whole way until we emptied out on the parking lot we left in the beginning. In some ways, this day was the worse of the two, Joe and I had rented hiking boots that really didn’t fit and they left us swimming in the boots so the promises of blisters from the night before were in full bloom for the last day. But nonetheless, it was a stunning and memorable day in its own right.

What did I learn from the backpacking adventure?… Bring more food than you think you’ll need, bring a sponge for cleaning dishes, and you are likely overpacking clothes: bring one core outfit with options for layering and spare underwear and socks. And prepare for the bold wildlife!

The next day we unanimously decided on no hiking, instead we hopped on the Te Anau boat to the entrance of New Zealand’s Glow Worm Caves. The tour took us into the caves and, once deep enough, took us on smaller boats that were guided in the pitch dark, other than the cosmic-like glow from the clusters of worms. The bioluminescence was breathtaking and fascinating to learn about its evolutionary origins. 

We weren't allowed to take photos but here's a decent one I found online:

After the tour, we had some time to kill in Te Anau so we ran a load of laundry at the local laundromat, walked through a nearby art gallery, and purchased some souvenirs to memorialize this trip. Across the board, every local we met carried a gentle, relaxed disposition with a passion for dry humor. 

That night we set up camp at the Cascade Creek camping grounds, the nearest camping spot to Milford Sound. It got much colder than we had initially bargained for and the three-person tent we were all huddled in while we were still up became everyone's bed for the night.  

The next morning everyone woke up laughing over how they swore their night of sleep was worse than everyone else’s. Not doing that one again. We packed everything up and set off for the boat tour at Milford Sound. 

After the stunning ride through the glacier-made channels, we made our way to the start of our final hike, Gertrude Saddle. It’s hard to exaggerate just how beautiful our final hike was. We walked under golden grass growing off the sharp mountainside cut only by the aqua-colored streams coming from the lake placed in the “saddle” of the mountain. On the way down we thought the lake looked like a great spot to cool off...

That night we had previously planned on camping at the same grounds but we had enough and frantically looked for last-minute accommodations for seven. Our search brought us to an Airbnb apartment back in Queenstown for the night.

We said goodbye to two of our companions and set off for the day’s adventures. Our first stop was jet boating. It’s essentially a Mario Kart-like drift through the surrounding rivers. It was thrilling, but it admittedly got old after the first 30 minutes.

Next up was river boarding, essentially boogie boarding with a wetsuit and helmet in grade three rapids. Everyone had a blast and the trip actually ended with us sharing a pint at a nearby bar with one of our instructors Pav.

This trip has been memorable and greater than my already high expectations. There was nothing like being on the ground looking up at the steep mountains and into the starry sky. The group was reverently silent more often than any group I’ve been a part of. If any of this peaks your interest I cannot recommend visiting this beautiful country enough.

Take care everyone,

Grant Touchette

Aerospace Engineering

University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia

Day 34 Tuesday 19 th September

Ostende to Knokke Heist 40 km

Started the day searching for chamie cream for my derrière. Bruises from long hill climbing making my skin rather sore. When we eventually got going the wind just blew us along .

Goodbye Ostende

Caught a ferry across to the next peninsula. That wind is cold and wet. I told Chris he’d need his coat on.

Blowing a gale with rain

Buildings beginning to look more Germanic as we stop for a coffee break .

So many things to see and watch . This bridge was letting a transport vessel called Texas through the canal .

Ended up at tonight’s destination. Knokke Heist. Nice place, posh shops . Need to try some Belgium beer.

Tuesday was the season finale of VTM:DA and Lilijana used so many blood points she ended up looking like she walked out of Dragon Age.

Because of some Demon fuckery, we knew that the templars were going to in fact murder the pagans and 2 templars with true faith were going to be there. We were told the big scary Brujah who is the Prince's bodyguard would not be coming which was music to Lilijana's ears.

Lilijana slept in the forest the night before the Solstice much to Aleksy's disapproval who had to bury her. Awakening the night of the Solstice, Lilijana and the Lhiannon Gregory did a few rituals to protect the grounds. The overlap on their two abilities was awesome. Lilijana using her Kraina to confuse those who would find the Grove in a 3 km radius and Gregory had the plants come alive around it. A long with domain breach Lilijana could start playing 3d chess once she became aware of them, either pulling them closer or away. A nosferatu ally warned us the Brujah would be coming this evening with a flaming sword....well shit...

The actual ritual went on without a hitch. Lilijana blessed a woman and a blood point was taken from her. Not sure what that means! Then Lilijana's senses started pinging and she became aware of the Brujah. She did crowd control for a long time and then started using Genius Loci and became aware that a Kindred we knew of obfuscated in the trees. He was promptly batted down by the roots that Lilijana controls and things went badly for him because he couldn't get out of the branches grasp and our Warrior Salubri took of his head...woops.

The pagans began to panic but we managed to get them out. Lilijanas goal was to keep the Brujah away and get her people and self to safety. Aleksy was sent to save our Cappodacian and eventually the Warrior Salubri joined them and by the time he got there Aleksy and the Cappodacian had dealt with the true faith templars (mostly Aleksy)

The Brujah eventually got enough successes to reach the outskirts of the Grove. Lilijana used her roots to slow him down until she was sure Aleksy had rescued the Cappodacian. It ended up being a pretty brutal war with Lilijana succeeding for multiple rounds and used multiple roots to keep him at bay as his anger got worse and he began hacking at the roots, pumped blood and tore a tree out.

Lilijana finally called it knowing she had done enough and fled to safety. She explained this to the Lhiannon who held her, kissed her forehead and said, "You are a great shepherd but remember you are a wolf." Which is gonna stick with her for a while I think.

Lilijana fled but Failed her stealth roll getting out of the forest and was almost turned into a pin cushion by archers. But was luckily saved by our Healer Salubri who has called herself Lilijana's Knight. We made it back to town with Lilijana on 3 blood points after having a full freaking tank. All the blood covering her was her own.

She also got a moment with the demon that offered her the power to befuddle and control other kindred. This was the first time it had offered her anything. She refused explaining she could not as she would not be held in servitude (Lilijana is on Road of Kings) She could not as much as the extra power would be desirable. It did confirm that the other demon Lilijana has been sensing in her dreams is an other Earthbound.

When we got home we realised our Lasombra had not returned but had left a message about her becoming the Prince's senseschal and had put a plan in motion to take out the Brujah. Lilijana feels a bit of fear about this given how power hungry the Lasombra has been. Also when Lilijana asked for an Oath to do with the Demon she had skirted the issue that made Lilijana distrust her.

Then we became aware of screaming as the Torpored Tzimisce we had been keeping hidden since the end of last season suddenly awoke by herself and is very confused as to where she was!

We have some down time of 3 months and can put some plans into action. We also have to decide what we are going to do with the Tzimisce who technically would have a line to Princedom as her sire was the previous Prince.

However that is the end of this season and I will be back to Call of Cthulhu for 7 weeks

Nineteenth

Sunday, I got my first chance to really see the city of Toulon by myself. Unfortunately, almost everything seemed to be closed on Sundays and I could hardly find anything that was open. Not willing to accept defeat, I decided to go and visit one of the beaches of Toulon and lounge around for a little. From my understanding, the beach I went to had sand that was artificial as normally, it's just a beach of pebbles and stones. The weather was very agreeable, and it seemed like that's where most in the city had gone to for the weekend.

On Monday, I was off from volunteering technically, however, I had been invited to join the team at Le Rocher for a soccer game against another volunteer organization (of which I don't know the name of). The match was fun, but it was really a bit too warm to be playing soccer outside. Nonetheless, I still enjoyed myself and playing with the kids and other volunteers.

On Tuesday, I arrived at my organization in the morning to find everyone packing for what seemed to be a picnic or lunch of some sort. While this confused me a little bit, I didn't ask any questions and just got into the van with the other volunteers. After fifteen minutes of driving, I looked over to my director's phone and saw we still had another 45 minutes left until our destination (which I still didn't know).

Slowly the scenery changed into a more rural and hill-y environment until we finally arrived at a secluded hill with a church at its summit. After the other volunteers had partaken in a brief religious session, we left to go on a hike to a monastery on a 7 km round trip hike. I enjoyed the scenery, but the lack of wind made the hike slightly difficult. After getting back, we had our typical session for homework help that the organization offers every Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.

On Wednesday, we had an outing with some of the kids to go to the beach. Unfortunately, it was difficult to keep control over the kids as they seemed to feel that once they were in public, they were no longer under our jurisdiction. Later, we played soccer back near the building where we stay at and welcomed a new volunteer.

Thursday, it seemed like all we did was various meetings along with the typical homework session. I was a little frustrated in the morning because I arrived (early) and waited 20 minutes before receiving a call that they would be starting later than usual that day. I'm sure I had probably been told peripherally about this detail but I had clearly missed the memo.

Friday, I had some more meeting time about various random logistical things and further planning for the organization later in the month and rest of Summer. We also hosted a large lunch at our organization's location because we had been the host location for a training session for various members of the organization. And, as usual, we finished the day with our session with the kids to help them with their schoolwork.

Saturday, we had a rather uneventful day. In the morning we handed out coffee/tea on the street to anyone passing by (that wanted it. We had far fewer passersby than the previous week's session. Later, we were slotted to do a hike up one of the nearby mountains, but this ended up being cancelled due to some light rain earlier in the day.

BBC 0427 13 Apr 2023

12095Khz 0357 13 APR 2023 - BBC (UNITED KINGDOM) in ENGLISH from TALATA VOLONONDRY. SINPO = 55434. English, dead carrier s/on @0358z with Al'Seela modulation in the bg, then ID@0359z pips and Newsday preview. @0401z World News anchored by Neil Nunes. North Korea fired what might be a new model of ballistic missile on Thursday, South Korea said, triggering a scare in northern Japan, where residents were told to take cover, though there turned out to be no danger. The missile flew about 1,000 km (620 miles), South Korea's military said, calling it a "grave provocation." The second of two Tennessee lawmakers expelled from the state legislature after leading a gun control protest on the chamber floor has been reinstated. Justin Pearson, 29, got his seat back after a unanimous vote from seven members of the Shelby County Board of Commissioners. Tensions between the Sudanese military and feared RSF paramilitary have come to surface in recent weeks over proposed timeline for integration of RSF into the military, political and military sources say. The US government believes the UN Secretary General is too willing to accommodate Russian interests, according to fresh revelations in classified documents leaked online. Nine people were killed on Tuesday morning when an armed group opened fire on fishermen who were carrying out their usual work in the small port of Esmeraldas, Ecuador. Western Australia is bracing for the arrival of a major storm which could bring "very destructive" winds of up to 275 km/h (170 mph). Tropical Cyclone Ilsa is predicted to strike some 500 kilometres (310 miles) west of Broome. Food and fuel have been delivered to remote areas, and people have been advised to stock up on water. Sixteen of the 20 bodies that have been found on Taiwan’s west coast since February have been identified, with nine of them being Taiwanese and seven Vietnamese, police said yesterday, adding that they were investigating whether a wooden boat might be linked to the bodies. Most of the deaths are believed to have resulted from a boat that capsized in the Taiwan Strait during a human trafficking operation seeking to bring Vietnamese to Taiwan to work, the Criminal Investigation Bureau said. US President Joe Biden has been welcomed to the Republic of Ireland for a three-day visit, during which time he's expected to address parliament and explore his ancestral ties. @0406z "Newsday" begins. Backyard fence antenna, Etón e1XM. 250kW, beamAz 315°, bearing 63°. Received at Plymouth, United States, 15359KM from transmitter at Talata Volonondry. Local time: 2257.

Nikki Yadav Wiki, Murder Case Update, Family, Boyfriend, Age, Biography, Height, Instagram

Nikki Yadav Wiki:- Nikki Yadav was a 22 years old Indian girl who was killed by her 24-year-old boyfriend on 9 February 2023. Her boyfriend Sahil Gehlot strangled her throat via a mobile cable in the car and kept her dead boy in the fridge of his dhaba. Police were told by someone about her dead body and police recovered the dead body on 10 February 2023. Sahil Gehlot was arrested on 14 February 2023.  In this article, you can get all the details about Nikki Yadav Wiki, Murder Case Update, Family, Boyfriend, Age, Biography, Height, and Instagram. 

Nikki Yadav Wiki

Nikki Yadav was born in Khedi Khummar Village, Jhajjar, Haryana in 2001. She was 22 years old when she was killed. She completed her high school study in Jhajjar. She moved to Uttam Nagar, South Delhi to prepare for the Medical Entrance Exam at Aakash Institute in Uttam Nagar. Later she joined BA in English honors in the D. Pharma at Galgotia College.

Nikki Yadav Murder Case Update

Nikki's boyfriend Sahil Gehlot's marriage was fixed by his family elsewhere. His marriage was on 10 February 2023. When Nikki knew about his wedding on 9 February 2023 then he called her to meet and planned to go to Goa but he canceled the plan in the evening when they were in the car. They had a fight in the car over marriage and things got so bad that Sahil strangled her throat with the mobile charger's cable a the ISBT located at Kashemere Gate. She died. He reached Mitraon village, 35 km away where he has his own dhaba. He kept her dead body in the fridge of his dhaba and he moved to his house. Police were told by someone about her dead body and police recovered the dead body on 10 February 2023.

Sahil Gehlot hid Nikki's dead body in fridge Police arrested Sahil Gehlot on 14 February 2023 on Tuesday and the court sent him on remand for 5 days. Nikki's body was sent to Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital for postmortem.

Nikki Yadav Biography, Age, Wiki, Family

Nikki Yadav Wiki Name Nikki Yadav Birthplace Khedi Khummar Village, Jhajjar, Haryana Date of Birth 2001 Age 22 Years Old Parents Sunil Dutt (Father) and Mrs. Dutt (Mother) Religion Hinduism School Local Private High School in Khedi Khummar Village College Galgotia College Post Category Wiki

Nikki Yadav Family (Father and Mother)

Nikki Yadav was born to Sunil Dutt (Father) and Mrs. Dutt (Mother). Her family lives in Khedi Khummar village in Jhajjar, Haryana. She is the niece of Jawan Praveen Yadav.

Nikki Yadav's Father Praveen was involved in the 1999 Operation Vijay in Kargil War who lost both his hands in the war. His right leg doesn't work properly. Nikki's father told that they have network issues in village Khummar that's why people have to go to the terrace to talk on the phone. When Sunil Dutt didn't call for many days from his daughter, he thought that the phone was not ringing due to network failure. But later they got worried and he reached Delhi to get Nikki's address and went to Sahil's house to inquire about Nikki. Sahil's relatives assured him that Sahil would bring her back. Sunil got the news of his daughter's death and her family left for Delhi.

Nikki Yadav Boyfriend

Nikki Yadav was an unmarried girl who met Sahil Gehlot in Delhi. Sahil is 24 years old from Mitraon Village of Najafgarh. They met in coaching in 2018 when after Sahil came to Delhi in January 2018 for preparing for the SSC exam at Career Point Coaching in Uttam Nagr. At that time, Nikki started preprations for the Medical Entrance Exam at Aakash Insititue in Uttam Nagar. They used to go and come in the same bus so they became firends and fell in love. Later Sahil joined Galgotia College, Greater Noida in February 2018 to study D. Pharma and Nikki joined BA in the same colelge. They started to living together in a rented house in Greater Noida. Sahil got married to a gril from Bahadurgarh in Haryan on 10 Febraury 2023.

Nikki Yadav With Her Boyfriend Sahil Gehlot

Nikki Yadav Height, Weight

Nikki Yadav was 5 feet 6 inches tall. Her weight was around 65 kg. 

Nikki Yadav Instagram

Nikki Yadav's Instagram is not revealed yet. 

FAQs About Nikki Yadav Wiki

Q.1 Who was Nikki Yadav? Ans. Nikki Yadav was a 22 years old Indian girl who was killed by her 24-year-old boyfriend on 9 February 2023. Q.2 How old was Nikki Yadav? Ans. 22 Years Old Q.3 Who are Nikki Yadav's parents? Ans. Sunil Dutt (Father) and Mrs. Dutt (Mother) Q.4 Who was Nikki Yadav's boyfriend? Ans. Sahil Gehlot Q.5 What was Nikki Yadav's height? Ans. Around 5 Feet 6 Inches. Read Also: Nikki Yadav Murder Case Update Read the full article

Alice Springs & preparing for our Camel Trek

Thursday, 22 April

We drove the last 150 km into Marla on the Stuart Highway, the first sealed road for almost 700 clicks. We refuelled, although we probably still had enough to get us to Alice Springs. And we had lowered our tyre pressure on the gravel roads so this was the time to bring them up to pressure again because we would now be on bitumen right through to Alice Springs. We also ate our lunch there before setting off on the final section of our trip to the Alice.

We had expected to be stopped at the Northern Territory border for quarantine and Covid documentation checks, but there was absolutely nothing so we just kept driving through to Kulgera and thence on to Erldunda where we stopped for the night. There were a few more birds around the caravan park than at our previous stops, including a pair of Major Mitchells, a few vivid Australian Ringnecks and some Mulga Parrots.

We had another superb dinner at night, using our double-sided frying pan to cook a hearty roast chicken and vegetables meal to celebrate our arrival in the Northern Territory. Interestingly, we still haven’t turned on our TV to watch any DVDs since we left home. We have just read or done puzzles and turned in quite early each night. That will probably change once we are back in ‘civilisation’ again.

Friday, 23 April

We saw a couple of camels over the fence from our caravan after breakfast so took a few photos of them and told them that we would be walking in the desert with some of their brothers within the week – but that didn’t seem to impress them much. And then it was on the road again for the final 199 kilometres to Alice Springs.

We arrived at the G’Day Mate Caravan Park where we have stayed a couple of times before at about 12.45pm – a mere 3065 kilometres from home. We set ourselves up quite comfortably here and despite our resolve to leave all the cleaning and reorganising until after our Camel Trek, we did quite a bit of it during the afternoon. We have plenty still to do, but at least the main surfaces are now clean and most of our gear is accessible and usable if and when we want it. We noted a few more very minor damages to the van, but one important thing I saw when I disconnected the car from the van was that one of the two bolts in the trailer hitch had come loose and fallen out during the trip, leaving only a single bolt holding the van and the (fairly loose) towball hanging at an angle of about 45 degrees from where it should be.

We cooked another excellent meal for dinner and washed it down with a bottle of bubbles to celebrate our arrival at our first formal destination of this trip.

Saturday, 24 April

We had a huge fry-up for breakfast, using up lots of delicious leftovers before we started work for the day.

We had heaps of cleaning and rearranging to do as well as two giant loads of accumulated dust to wash out of our bedding and clothing. Everything was/is smothered in dust. I tried to get some out of our carpets and Heather did a lot of cleaning too, but it even coated everything in the fridge - how it infiltrated the fridge-seals beats me, but every cupboard, every drawer, every surface was reddish grey from its thick coating of dust. We had sealed boxes inside a closed cupboard under the bed and even they were full of dust. We will live with most of it until after our camel trek and do a more comprehensive clean after that. Of course, we will be travelling on lots more dusty roads over the next few months so I am quite sure it is all going to happen again, probably several times.

While the washing was on the line drying, we caught up with the scores of emails that had arrived while we were off the grid, with bills to pay and transactions to post, etc. There is no rest for the wicked and I had quite a bit of reading to do and correspondence to finalise for our next Owners Corporation Committee meeting the day after we get back from our Camel Expedition.

We also needed to restock some of our cupboards so went to the Supermarket during the afternoon too. It was a busy day even if we didn’t seem to have a lot to show for it. But we made a delicious paella for dinner - absolutely delightful! Man, can we do paella!

Sunday, 25 April

ANZAC Day, but apart from recognising it on Facebook, we didn’t make much of it this year. We both had things to do and I am still finding it exhausting to do much without gasping for breath with the lingering dregs of my cold - and a further 10 days later, I still haven't shaken it completely.

I wanted to check out under both car and van for any previously undetected damages and spent an hour or so crawling around inspecting the respective undercarriages. There is no indication of even the smallest damage under the car - what a mighty wagon we have! And perhaps surprisingly, the van is pretty good too. We have invested in a good deal of protective shielding over the years and although the metal guards are bent and ripped in places, it is still doing a pretty good job. It is just the odd stone that misses the shielding and hits something vulnerable (like a plastic water tap or unprotected hose) that does the occasional damage. But I guess a few million stones have hit the protection and it is not all that surprising that the occasional one gets through.

I had to tighten the towball that had become a little loose and retrieve the remaining bolt from the unit so I can buy an identical one and both tasks proved challenging, but I eventually succeeded with both. And we had to cut the padlock off the other gas cylinder so we replaced both cylinders with identically keyed locks. Accessing tools from both car and van and repacking the caravan boot also took time so with several rests to gird my loins again, it was almost lunchtime before that was all completed.

While I was doing this, Heather was reworking a draft I had prepared to nominate one of our Clubs for an award. We actually nominated them for two somewhat similar awards and it would be great if they got one. They really deserve it after their fantastic work supporting their members and growing the Club through the darkest days of the Covid lockdown.

We spent a good deal of the afternoon looking at our photos and writing stuff for our blogs but we went out for a 3-4 km walk in the arvo, just around the local area - basically along both sides of the very dry Todd River.

Monday/Tuesday, 26-27 April

In anticipation of our upcoming trek, we didn’t do a lot on these days. We had a couple of long walks in the area around the caravan park (one with our back-packs on to satisfy ourselves that we could carry the weight) and mainly just did more cleaning and maintenance around the van. We took quite some time packing for our Camel Trek to ensure we had everything we might need, that everything was fully charged and we were ready to take on the challenge ahead of us.

IRL Hisoka's Bullshit: A Comprehensive Guide

Welcome to the long ass timeline of david’s lies and misdirections. Make sure you’ve got time before you read this, it’s almost 4,000 words long.

(hana, while editing this to post: please add a “keep reading” cut right here.)

Our tumblr family’s first encounter with David was when he made a headcanon request in my inbox. He asked for several characters with an s/o who is depressed and self harms, adding an extra comment on the fact that he wasn’t feeling well lately. When I refused this request and said he could talk to me about that if he wanted to, he sent in another anonymous ask apologizing for triggering me or anyone else and asked if he could tell me why he was feeling this way. I assured him that it wasn’t a big deal and referred him to several nonspecific helplines. He then sent in another ask, this time he coming off anon. He told me that he was trans and that his dysphoria was really bad lately. I answered this ask privately with several more specific hotlines and a little bit of advice. He thanked me in another ask and headed off to sleep. 

The next event in our little timeline is Hana’s hate anon. The earliest appearance I found was on July 29th, although I know there were some before that. This is only a hateful ask and not the essay that led to Hana’s hiatus. That essay was submitted by an anon on August 1st, and it got lots and lots of love and support from many, all of them rightfully telling Hana how amazing she is and defending her against the hate. Hana then announced she was going on hiatus. We believe David took notice of the attention she received here and decided he wanted a little of his own.

Mere hours after Hana’s hiatus announcement, she made a second post entitled “Hiatus of Hiatus (Momentarily)”. The body text of that post said, “Please stop Dming me and telling me not to kms. I’m not going to, I promise. I really don’t want to be reminded that I’m in a position where people think that I would do that. I’m sorry, I appreciate the concern, however, I’m not suicidal in the least.” 

These are the first few events in our timeline. Remember, every claim here is alleged. If we’re wrong about everything we look like assholes, so everything is alleged.

Now to the interesting part. On August 3rd, David made a post that said, and I quote, “Can you please, please stop sending things to my inbox saying ‘you’re still a girl’ and ‘you’re a fag and a tranny’ Please I’m so tired of it”. Are you noticing a pattern? The phrasing of this post is uncannily similar to the phrasing of Hana’s “Hiatus of Hiatus (Momentarily)” post. There were no posts about getting any asks on his blog at the time, and no one who has been following him since August 3rd remembers there being any. It’s unlikely he answered some in a post and then deleted them, as this doesn’t appear to be a habit of his in the future. In looking for receipts for this timeline, nothing we were looking for had been deleted. Not a single post. So it’s highly unlikely he somehow managed to post these anon messages and then delete them before any of us could read them. Another possibility is that he deleted the messages as soon as they entered his inbox, and that’s a reasonable argument. The only thing that makes this illogical is the fact that he posted every other anon message in the future. It makes no sense that he would delete the first ones and decide to answer the second ones publicly. It would make more sense if he had hate anons that he was posting first and then decided to delete the messages after he got fed up with them. But that’s not what happened, as you’ll see later.

At this point, David is only claiming to have hate anons. We have two theories for why he didn’t just send himself hate messages at first rather than only claiming to be receiving them. One is that he used this post as an interest gauge that he wanted to see if he’d get as much support as Hana did when that hate anon’s essay was posted. The second is that he hadn’t thought of the idea yet, that he hadn’t realized he could send them himself instead of waiting for someone else to come along and send some for him.

He then made a post on August 4th saying “I’m done. Absolutely, done. Wtf is wrong with you anon. telling me to kms. I’m doing what Hana did I forgot what it’s called tho. Fuck you anon. I’m waving my white flag [white flag emoji].” This is him saying he was going on hiatus like Hana had announced only 4 days prior. Again, there is no actual evidence of him receiving any real hate anon messages yet. It’s unlikely he did. Hana had 250 followers at the time of getting hate anons, while David had no more than 10. While it’s not impossible for him to have actually gotten hate anon messages, it’s highly, highly unlikely for reasons previously stated and reasons yet to come.

David didn’t really go on hiatus at all. To give him a little credit, he didn’t post anything notable for about 3 days after this, but I’d hardly call that a break. On August 7th, though, all hell broke loose.

August 7th was the most notable day in the entire timeline. Because this was the day when we saw the first actual hate anon messages. The first one he received said “Hi! I just wanted to say Your just a fucking tranny and a fag and god hates you. Please delete this app! Your fics aren’t even that good. They suck. Also kill your self nobody would care!” To which David replied a simple 3 dots. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never actually seen David write anything on his blog. I know he has, but I feel like you’d have to be awfully active on his page and have been there from the very beginning to know about the fact that he’s posted fanfiction. After the first post got a lot of backlash from myself and David’s other mutuals at the time, a second and third anon message came rolling in. These had a much more loving theme, however. They weren’t the hate anon, but a couple of anons supporting David (one of which was me). After David replied to those two positive anon messages, three more hate messages were posted with equal amounts of support for David in the replies as before. After that, three more love anons pulled in, again, one of which was myself. A final anon message appeared for the day, and with that, the hate anons were over for the 7th. He got another love anon after that. The next anon message posted was one of the last love anons asking for a request. Again, he doesn’t really write and the fact that requests were open wasn’t advertised or even written anywhere, leading us to believe this anon is also David himself. The anon asked for headcanons with a couple characters dating a demisexual girl. David said he’d have to do some research because he didn’t know what the term demisexual meant and asked a few more clarifying questions, claiming the headcanons would be posted “Monday or Tuesday”. It’s been over two weeks since then and no such headcanons were posted. This led us to believe that he was this anon, and that he was using this ask as fuel for future hate anon messages. The final thing that happened on the 7th was a request clearly made to trigger someone. It had mentions of suicide and sexual violence, both topics David has expressed he is uncomfortable around. Again, I think this message was sent by David for aforementioned reasons. He doesn’t really get requests and not many people knew he took them. However, to play devil’s advocate, he did get that anon message asking for a demisexual reader before this and this supposed “anon” could’ve gotten the idea there. Unlikely, but possible. (an added note after: I told David in a dm that day to turn off the anon option so that the hate anon could be traced, and he refused. Just an interesting detail.) That wraps up August 7th.

On August 8th, he posted that he punched a cop and was placed in a holding cell, being released sometime on the 8th. It’s unclear when he was originally placed in the cell, if this happened at all. After this, he received another hateful message, assumedly from the same anon as the previous night. This one criticized him for not knowing the meaning of demisexual and insulted his appearance and his writing once more. He apologized for not knowing the definition and moved on, until another message popped up insulting him and misgendering him. Both of these also got a lot of backlash from myself and his other mutuals at the time. We were encouraging the hate anon to come after us instead of David in these, which will come into play later. He also got 4 more love anon messages, one of which seemed to be written by him. It said, “I love your writing, sir. Pls don’t listen to rude people. I hope I rote this correctlly English is my second language.” As Hana can confirm, non-native English speakers simply don’t type this way. It was very clearly written by someone with English as their first language pretending to be someone who didn’t know the language very well. This looks to me like he has been sending himself multiple love anon messages to encourage other real people to do the same, and he’s trying to make it look like there’s a lot of different people supporting him rather than the same few, which leads us to believe several other love anons were also David himself. Again, all of this is alleged, it’s just what it looks like from here. After those few love anons, the hate anon appeared again, only this time, it was in Anarchy’s inbox. Anarchy defended David fiercely, much to David’s satisfaction, I imagine. There were multiple exchanges between Anarchy and this supposed hate anon, each time Anarchy responded with a lengthy paragraph about how much she appreciated David. In one of the anon messages, the anon used David’s deadname, which he never listed on his profile (obviously). You might think that’s damning, but he explains it away later. The last things that happened on the 8th was that he made a post saying how much he hated being with his mom and step mom due to then treating him unfairly. This led to a post that said, “Hi this is davids step mother. I don’t understand why he has been saying these things. I will be taking his phone because I have never done this to him.” This is unlikely for a number of reasons. How did the step mom know what he was saying if we almost know for sure she doesn’t have tumblr without having taken his phone already? And who makes a Tumblr post about taking their step son’s phone away right after doing it? It reminds me a lot of that one Xbox live chat where the kid pretended to commit suicide and then acted like his father messaging the person who “caused his suicide,” but I digress. He later updated his followers by saying he didn’t let her take his phone. Riiiiight. Okay. Moving on.

August 9th was a big day for David, or at least for who he’s portraying himself to be. Not at first, though. This was the day he claims to have moved in with his boyfriend and the day he was proposed to. Or at least, that’s what he wants us to think. But we’ll get to that in a second. The first thing of note that he posted that day was that he was having trouble with his dysphoria, which led to multiple anon messages reaffirming his gender identity. He also posted a storytime that also supposedly happened that day about going to the beach. To quote it: “So me and my boyfriend went to go for a walk along the beach. We’re walking and I have to go to the bathroom luckily there was a restaurant not to far from there so I just ran because ya bitch had to pee. Anyways a girl started hitting on my boyfriend while I was In the bathroom (he told me and i saw when i came back) so i’m walking back up and what do I see? a girl really close to my boyfriend and she has her hand on his shoulder so i start To walk over there and my boyfriend sees me and runs and jumps into my arms and kisses me. The girl rolls her eyes and leaves. I’m a blushing mess from the PDA. I put him down and go get Ice cream.” Now, this is just a nitpicky thing, nothing to do with the rest of the points made. But that story looks like it was ripped right off of r/thattotallyhappened I’m so sorry if it was actually true but at this point, with how much he’s (*ahem* allegedly) lied about, I wouldn’t put it past him. Back to the main thing that happened on the 9th. This is the first point we have definitive proof for. If you reverse image search the image David posted of the engagement ring, it brings up the following pages:

And what do we see when we click on one of those links?

A list of different kinds of wedding rings and their respective pros and cons, including this very image. I think it’s safe to say this website didn’t rip this photo from David’s tumblr page. Get excited, people! This is indisputable evidence that he lied and there’s no way to explain his way out of it! Awesome. Moving right along, this is getting hella long. 

August 10th. Nothing really notable about this day, David posted a submission about how to block anons though. This was also the day that the hate anon came into my inbox instead. Not to attack me, but to attack David. Again, at this point we’re going with the assumption that David is the anon. I defended him again, and when I got sick of it I turned off the anon option to see what would happen and surprise surprise, no more anon messages. That’s about all that happened on the 10th.

On the 11th he claimed to have gotten r*pe and death threats without posting the anon messages. At this point, it’s almost reasonable to believe he deleted them right out of his inbox and moved on. Almost.

On the 12th, the hate anon was back in my inbox. They sent me two asks, one of which I responded to and the other I didn’t. At the second one, I blocked the anon’s IP address, meaning that they could never send me another ask again, anon or not. What’s damning about this is that after this day, I never got another ask from David again. Normally he’d at least send something while ask games were going around, but from that point on I got absolutely nothing. This is almost definitive proof that David was his own hate anon.  Another thing that happened that day, after Hana flirted with me a little bit publicly he encouraged us to date. That’s wrong for a number of reasons and seems extra creepy now, but we won’t be getting into that now.

Things died down a bit until the 15th. This is the day the hate anon supposedly forgot to press “ask anonymously” and revealed themselves. The account was someone he claimed to be his sister, but the entire account was based around David and there was no previous activity and as soon as all the (*cough* manufactured) “drama” died down, the account disappeared. Just stopped existing altogether. We think David used this account to explain how the hate anon seemed to know him so well, even though the account seemed a lot like it was created and run by David. There was a dm conversation between David and this sister account posted on David’s account, basically with the sister insulting him and him responding very calmly to that. He only posted the hate message the sister sent off anon after he’d said it was his sister. What I’m wondering is how David knew this account was his sister by just reading the username. If there was no previous history (indicative of the account being created with the sole purpose being to hate David) how did he know it was his sister? It’s not like he’d think to just ask her irl if that was her account. Another thing that happened on the 15th was a post about him talking with his uncle. To quote: “I was on the phone with my uncle (who hasn’t seen me in 7 years) and he asks how old i am and when I tell him, he gets so quiet. Like is he surprised?” Notice how he doesn’t list a specific age in the post. He’s told everyone in the tumblr family group a different number, and he’s trying not to allude to that fact. He also claims to have had a big verbal argument with his “fiancee” that day where his fiancee threw his ring at him and packed up for his sister’s house on the 15th only 6 days after their alleged engagement. We don’t get another update on that until the next day, the 17th. 

The 17th was when “Jackson” and David officially broke up.

On the 20th, a mysterious account called “jackson-periodt” showed up, reblogging David’s posts publicly begging David to take him back. But David refused. Like the sister account, this account had no previous history and disappeared after the “drama” subsided. The fact that we know now that he definitely lied about being engaged brings up all kinds of questions. What did he tell the truth about? Or, to be more apt, what didn’t he lie about? Is anything he’s told us true? Was he ever even dating a “Jackson”? And who asks for a second chance PUBLICLY on TUMBLR?

Then the 22nd, when all the pedophilia and predation came to light, David issued a half assed apology and hasn’t been heard from since. At least on his main account.

  For awhile, there’d been a Carolina anon going around the tumblr family’s blogs and everything. 

When David’s predation was brought to light, they came off anon, sporting the URL @/carolina209. Awfully similar to the Jackson alias, don’t you think? It’s just like the other accounts, the sister one and the Jackson one. No previous history, no profile picture, no banner, nothing but a title and a bio. You’d think they’d be a little more fleshed out, but they’re just… not. This Carolina anon was in everyone’s inboxes in our little tumblr family besides mine. That might be because they just don’t want to talk to me, or it could be because the hate anon, David, and Carolina accounts all have the same IP address that I blocked. Outlandish, I know. But if you look on the @/hana-and-her-bs account and all the screenshots of dms between Hana and Carolina, it starts to look a little more believable. Carolina’s flighty, her stories don’t add up. And she’s claiming to be a BNHA writer without having done any actual writing or anything to allude to the fact that they even actually like writing. Sound familiar? It should. Now, again, playing devil’s advocate here, it’s very possible she just hasn’t gotten around to posting any writing yet. After all, her account has seemingly only been around a few days. But she got real close to us all real quick, especially to Logan, the previous object of David’s revolting behavior. The Carolina account has tried to make it very clear that they’re a minor. If David is behind it (which we’re 99% certain of), this absolutely discredits his entire apology post. If he was truly sorry, he wouldn’t be trying it a second time.

Another thing that convinces me David is behind this Carolina account is that Carolina is defending the fact that David’s a minor. Not outright, but subtly. If you check those aforementioned screenshots, you’ll see what I mean. The account implies it has proof that David is 16-17. It seems like he’s trying a little too hard to sell this “innocent little girl who’s just soooo afraid of the scary bad man” persona on this alt account. The whole thing is just a little suspicious.

  And that’s everything we have so far. It’s a lot, I know (3.8k words worth my lord), but I hope you can all understand just how deep this goes. We thought this was a simple case of predation, when in reality it’s a very clear pattern of insecurity and compulsive lying. Again, all of this is alleged (except the ring part. That’s not alleged, that’s definitive proof) so don’t @ me, alright? Alright.

  Dishonorable mentions: 

He claims his birthday is on August 5th, while the Carolina account (supposedly a close real life friend of his, but we think is actually David) says his birthday is the 6th.

He told me he went on a first date with a boy 2 months ago, then got engaged on the 9th. When I asked him how long they’d been dating, he said 3 years, then he clearly claimed to have been dating him for 7. It doesn’t add up. 

Claims his dad left him and then days later says his dad is the nicest person you’d ever meet and that he lives with his dad while his sister lives with his mom. Again, doesn’t add up.

He reblogged anti-pedo posts about having pedo apologists unfollow him, and said, “its disgusting how two people unfollowed me.” while literally being a pedo. This one’s more funny than annoying or disgusting.

The alleged sister account, @/okay-but-who-asked? They liked one of my posts, and I can’t prove it at all, but it’d be HELLA funny if it was because David forgot to switch accounts before liking my content. 

  A closing statement: David, if you’re reading this, please take a break from tumblr. From all social media, honestly. I mean that in the nicest way possible. I’ve said this over and over again, but I’m gonna say it again because it’s important. If you’re going to use your platform like this, you don’t deserve a platform. Full stop. Please take a break and come back when you learn how to act like a decent truth-telling human being. This story is honestly really sad to think about, the fact theory that you’re so insecure you made a hate anon persona to get attention. There are better ways to make friends, man, trust me. Get a therapist and figure it out. Pedophilia isn’t a valid coping mechanism.

✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨

Thank you, Babe! A timeline to keep in mind for the grand finale, which is postponed. For the time being, please try your hardest to make a friend like bond with Carolina, for I’ll be gone for 5 days starting tomorrow. After that, shit will hit the fan. ❤️❤️❤️ Hana

@jmeyerss​ @gayfanficanonymous​ @anarchytheselfshipper​ @red-riot-rat​ @squishytenya​

Turned 55 - A day in the life

I did this 5 years ago when I hit 50 and figured I’d do this again.  To capture a moment in time and what I did on typical day, but it just happened to be my birthday Sept. 1, 2020

Late night working

I got inspired and decided to improve our security profile on our product on a very minor issue, but it would be nice do.  So after midnight, which made it my birthday I researched on how to only allow Transport Layer Security (TLS) version 1.2 (and not allow earlier versions) to parts of our system used for internal communications.  This is a minor issue as we lock this down for all customer access and this is just for our own “system to system” communication.  So I looked up how to do this for something called Kibana and WebSphere liberty.  I checked in config file changes into something called github for our product and sent a “pull request” to have an expert review it.

So it is now 1:30 am and I’m ready to call it a night.

Can we sleep now

The wife comes up to bed and we agree to NOT let our dog Winston sleep in our bed as he can make it hard for us humans to sleep.  I would have him stay with us but Linh is not in favor.

So he whines outside our door for a good 15 minutes or so.  Now we are ready to sleep.

All of sudden we hear him barking constantly.  He behaves as a guard dog and we are perplexed as there is never anything going on late at night.  This is relentless.  After about 10 or 15 minutes of this I go out to see what the hell is going on.  He is in the next room, on my 16 year old son's bed looking out the window barking at something in the darkness. 

So I put his LED collar on and let him run around the house and chase until his heart’s content.  He stays outside for 1/2 hour or so.  I entice him back in and close the curtains in William's bedrooms so he won't go crazy barking anymore.  So I think.   FYI my son William is passed out in the basement on a new giant bean bag.Now it is probably 2:30 and I'm finally ready to sleep.  But no, we hear Winston barking non-stop again. 

FYI this never happens, normally it is peaceful here at night and the dog does not bark at things past 9 pm or so. It turns out whatever animals he saw before are still out there and he can see them from the windows on the 1st floor.  My wife is fast asleep.  I can't sleep because of this and possibly from my short but pretty hard 10 minute bike workout earlier today and the more than normal amount coffee I had today.  I normally just have  one cup but drank some leftover coffee in the afternoon.I probably fall asleep at 3 am or so.I have a 9 am meeting I have to get up for.

Working for the Man - IBM

Since I work from home I am able to get up right before my 9 am meeting. Then I run a meeting at 9:40 with my boss and my boss’ boss to go over how to allocate our finite internal cloud resources that one team wants to consume all of it.  This is all done by Webex video & audio conferencing (like Zoom).

We have a bunch more meetings.  Then I get a break sometime before noon.

Catching last 20 km of Tour de France Stage 4

When I get a break I put on the TV and through my Roku 3 put on NBC Sports Gold (without ads and European commentary)  to see if today’s Tour de France stage is still on.  I find out the race is still live and it is mountain top finish and there are 20 km left.  So this is the perfect time to watch.  I catch up on work while hearing the race and glimpsing at it.  

Although I’m an avid cyclist, race myself, and lead a fast ride every week (normally 2 times a week but reduced to one because of covid-19 and with a smaller group), I’m not a big fan of pro bike racing because I know all the top names and riders are still doping.  So I know only a fully doped rider has a chance of winning today’s stage, especially because it is mountain top finish. 

Fixing my bike

After my ride on Sunday with my former teammates: Ray Plewacki, Vic Siegfried, and Dave Fuentes, I asked my buddy Ray P. if he can fix some shifting problem of my bike this week.   He texted me earlier in the day and he agreed to come over during his lunch break.   He arrives at 12:30 as I have another meeting going on.  I tell my boss I will have to duck out of the meeting.  He is fine with that.

Ray does his magic and does micro adjusting on my Shimano DuraAce Di2 electronic shifting.  I could not shift into one of the mid gears in the back.  Ray figured it out for me.  So I’m all set for Tuesday Night World Championships.

Bike Ride

I eat my Overnight Oats in the very late morning and later on eat my vegan lentil based meal I made yesterday in the instant pot.   I finish up work, then clean my bike (clean the drive train) and put bike in car.

I drive to bike ride and get FaceTime video call from my Don Cayelli on the ride over to wish me happy birthday.  We agree to have our families go to North Carolina in a few months for a mini-vacation.  We talk about a bunch of things and he asks how old the guys I ride with.  I explain that the average age is about mid 30s, one guy I am older than his parents.  The best and strongest rider by far is 40 years old, a former pro - Jason Schneider.   He would not dope and had to leave the pro ranks as a result, doping was rampant (I claim it still is) but was much more out in the open.  That is the only reason why his pro bike days were cut short.

There were some notable strong riders not here, 2 of the regulars - Alex Batres and Jason Boslaugh.  Them not being here makes it much more manageable for me as the top guys feed off of others and try to outdo each other, in this process this puts the hurt on me.   Many other super strong riders have not been here for anytime this year since we resumed these small rides because of Covid-19. Two notable people in this category are: George Croghan & Ferry Gijzel.

The ride tonight is very hard, 3 loops with hills about 12 miles each loop.  We average 22.5 mph with stopping for lights every loop.  So a pretty hard ride.  I stay with the lead group but make a mistake on 2nd lap and don’t follow a very strong move (that I was told about) and end up doing a few miles solo to catch many 3 people and pull us most of the way to the main group on “Bennett Road” and catch them at the light.

Here is the strava from tonight’s ride

https://www.strava.com/activities/3998711104

This is missing pics of the strongest rider - Jason Schneider

Getting heckled on the ride

On the ride I get comments from the 2nd strongest rider on the ride about joining AARP.  This kid is 27 and I am older than his parents. Spencer Lofgran is this person of interest. 

Close the gap on the ride

On the last lap I was gaped a bit on a flat portion - Lawyers road as I was behind 3 folks that were not continuing the ride and the 4 guys in the front started hammering.  The strongest guy comes back and gives me a massive push that pushes me past all the riders.  This was by far the strongest push I ever received on the bike

Catching up with Mates

In the parking lot after the ride my buddy Vic Siegrfried is there waiting to wish me happy birthday.    Here is a pic from Sunday ride with me, Ray Plewacki (middle) and Vic 

Catching up with former work mates - IT Legend

I drive home and call a good friend of mine from work Anthony Zawacki to catch up with him.  He was our best worker by far but in our last round of layoffs was dismissed.  He is an IT rockstar doing great at his new job.  He asks me a work question and that reminds me to contact a team using our product to help them avert a Kubernetes problem of an expiring certificate and to fix it before it expires.

Working for the man again

I get home and hop back on my new work issued MacBook Pro 16″ laptop to figure out the commands I want the customer to run. The commands are not in our official doc and I eventually find the commands that work.  I test them on my own test system at an IBM lab and give them to support to get to them to the customer.  I no longer have contacts with the on-site team as the main person I worked with left IBM. 

I then write a long slack message to our documentation person to explain why we need these commands in our documentation. I then give sample output of the commands and what we are looking for.

The next day I spend a few hours doing more testing and spend an hour with our doc person to make all the changes to our official doc that I then get out to our customers on this release of our product.

Birthday Cake

My wife bought a 2 cakes, chocolate mousse with raspberries and apricot tart. 

I eat 100% plant based foods (past 8 months or so) but broke that tonight to eat the chocolate mousse

We FaceTime my daughter Sophia at the University of Virginia (UVA), I light candles, and we sing happy birthday with Linh, Sophia (on iPhone), William and our infamous dog - Winston.  Here are some poor photos I took in haste.

Trippy Lights & Wall Art

As I’m heading to bed my son shows me the LED lights we bought him for his bedroom and some very funky psychedelic wall art whose appearance change dramatically as the LED lights change colors.  

Christina Koch: NASA astronaut sets new female space record

The Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying Koch parachuted down to the grasslands of Kazakhstan at around 09:12 GMT.

She spent 328 days on the International Space Station (ISS), surpassing the previous record held by fellow American Peggy Whitson.

Her stay is just 12 days short of the all-time US record set by Scott Kelly, who was on the ISS from 2015-2016.

"I'm so overwhelmed and happy right now," she told reporters as she sat outside the capsule, shortly after it touched down in the snow.

Ms Koch surpassed the 289-day record set by fellow American Ms Whitson on 28 December last year. But her return to Earth sets the marker for future space travellers to beat.

Whitson still holds the record for most time spent in space by a woman, accrued over the course of three spaceflights from 2002-2017.

During her mission, Koch completed 5,248 orbits of the Earth and travelled 223 million km (139 million miles) - the equivalent of 291 round trips to the Moon from Earth.

She returned on the Soyuz with two other crew members - the Italian European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Skvortsov. They touched down near Dzhezkazgan in central Kazakhstan.

"For me, it's all about the honour I feel to follow in the footsteps of my heroes," Christina Koch told journalists on Tuesday during a live link-up from the ISS. She added that she wanted to inspire the next generation of space explorers.

"For me, it was important to see people that I saw a reflection of myself in, growing up, when I was envisioning what I could do with my life and what my dreams might be. To maybe be that source of inspiration for someone else is just such an honour," she said.

Ms Koch was involved in another spaceflight milestone during her stay of nearly 11 months on the ISS. On 18 October last year, she undertook the first all-female spacewalk alongside her compatriot Jessica Meir.

The pair spent seven hours outside the ISS replacing a failed power control unit.  Recalling the historic event with Meir, Ms Koch told NBC News: "When we first got the 'go' to come out of the airlock, and we ended up coming out, we were holding on to a handrail and we just caught each other's eyes."We knew how special that moment was and I'll never forget that."

More pictures, videos: https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-51387464?fbclid=IwAR1pJ90hZvujMFtzUqzPNL_zYN3LctxzrUkdihO_YQwxhhP1rYS5cFPWpJ4