#‘Tim really went ‘it’s work? well better get to practising’

[your-eyes-can-be-so-cruell]

#I was just sitting there thinking about how quickly he kissed her when it was a work thing and this came to me #‘Tim really went ‘it’s work? well better get to practising’ #Chenford #tim bradford #lucy chen #The Rookie

[madswritingvoid]

Say You’re Sorry

Pairing: Max Phillips x f!reader

Words: 3k (oops haha)

Warnings: SMUT. 18+ only. Oral (f receiving), unprotected sex, p in v sex, fingering, swearing, slight choking, first time writing smut should probably be a warning itself, sexism, Max Phillips is a warning probably.

You knew it was a bad idea. Well, actually, no you didn’t. Not fully. The voice in your head was just screaming at you to stop - there were other ways to get his attention. Other ways to make Max feel bad for what he did during the Synersavers presentation that didn’t require you stooping this low. Fuck it, you figured, if he can go around and do whatever he wants to get his way then so can I.

Fixing your hair and outfit in the mirror one last time, you went back into the office looking for the desk you usually avoid like the plague. Max Phillips, fuck you.

Earlier That Day

“So you see, Mr. Jacobson, our third quarter projections have us coming in on top by two million dollars and the fourth quarter is looking even better. I mean really champ, if these numbers were anymore amazing they’d be as hot as your associate there in that fetching skirt,” Max winks at the woman taking meeting minutes for your potential new client, causing her skin to blotch, “fucking unreal. Pardon my French,” he finishes, earning a big laugh from the CEO of Synersavers, the new bullshit placebo pill that was supposed to alter the brain’s natural neural pathways to promote synergy. You weren’t sure what dreams synergy was helping pathetic humans to achieve, but it meant a bonus if they signed on so you made sure that PowerPoint presentation was the best slides of your career.

You scoff, worried that if you roll your eyes they’ll get stuck. You know Max Phillips was quite the charmer, you knew better than anyone in the office. This past year saw him go from being just your hot vampire boss you had a crush on, to your hot vampire boss that was now your boyfriend. 

While you never made an official statement to your coworkers, you quietly signed the papers Amanda in HR needed signed and let the sound of you screaming Max’s name in his office while he was balls deep inside you let the rest of your coworkers know of your relationship. Overall, Max was a great boyfriend. Better than expected even - attentive, caring, protective to a fault, all while still being that loveable (?) piece of shit frat boy extraordinaire he had been at the beginning. 

You knew he still had to lay on the charm to close sales from time to time, never actually violating your relationship in any way, but after the fight you had this morning you didn’t think flirting with the only person in the meeting who did not actually control whether or not this partnership was going to happen right in front of you was the best move.

“Mr. Phillips,” Jacobson says, once again only acknowledging Max and completely ignoring you as he had been for the entire presentation, “you got quite the silver tongue. But I like that about ya, I think you get what our product is all about and I wanna make this partnership work. I’m surprised your presentation is as good as it was, because if you’ll pardon my French, if my secretary looked as delicious as yours does I’d be too busy fucking her left, right, and centre to even think about the fourth quarter anything!” He laughs and claps Max on the shoulder and you tense up, sure that Max is going to say something. Not even because he’s your boyfriend, but because he landed the sale and doesn’t have to be as sleazy as this dickhead is. 

“See that’s where you’re wrong Jacobson, it’s almost like I’m working double to avoid her. Just doesn’t get the mojo flowing, y’know? Maybe we should switch, what do you think sweetheart?” He looks over at the still flustered secretary, “Come on and work for me and we’ll work on some new ways of making synergy happen,” he wags his eyebrows and you’re surprised this poor woman hasn’t slid right off her seat. You’re stunned. Even as Mr. Jacobson laughs and brings a laughing Max into some sort of capitalist bro hug, you can’t bring yourself to move. It isn’t until you hear the squeak of the wheels from the chair Mr. Jacobson’s secretary was sitting against the shitty meeting room carpet that you snap back to the present and shut everything down. By the time you finish everyone is long gone, leaving you to stew in your rage.

A hesitant knock on the meeting room door makes you jump as you’re met with a sheepish looking Evan in the doorway. You were never a big fan of Evan when you started, kind of thought he was a wimp but he was nice enough. After getting with Max and learning their shared history, you couldn’t stand Evan, but were able to be far more professional when needed until Max.

“Oh, sorry, I didn’t realize anyone was still in here after Max and the Synersavers people left,” he shrugged. “What the fuck do you mean Max left with them?” You asked through clenched teeth. Scratching the back of his neck nervously, Evan took a deep breath before telling you, “yeah, um. They left for a late liquid lunch from what it sounded like, Max said you would be too busy learning how to make a paper clip bracelet to join them… Sorry, he’s such an asshole. You don’t deserve that, especially not from that bastard,” He couldn’t meet your eyes. Even though he still tried to tell you to leave Max every single day, you appreciate him being there this time.

There were many things you could be mean to Evan for, but deep down you knew he didn’t deserve the wrath of your anger this time. 

Later That Afternoon

After taking the elevator up to the office to mentally cleanse his mind from that mindless lunch with that absolute creep Jacobson, Max was trying to come up with the best apology for you. He knew he didn’t have to be so forward flirting with that secretary, what the fuck was her name anyways, in order to win the sexist CEO over. But he was feeling petty after your fight while you were getting ready for work he figured it wouldn’t hurt to remind you that many other women find him quite the catch.

“You’re lying! You have to be lying!! There’s no way that happened oh my god,” Max stops dead in his tracks as he hears your giggles from inside the office. “It is! I totally saw Tim practising the dance moves the day after that Kelly Clarkson concert in the men’s washroom. I didn’t even know she had dancers, but from what I saw it really must have been a hell of a show,” Evan says as you throw your head back and let out another over-the-top cackle. You’re sitting on top of Evan’s desk, resting your hand on his shoulder as he sits in between your open legs, clearly enjoying the attention. 

You’re hamming it up, he knows that, he knows that’s not what your real laugh sounds like - the laugh he gets to hear when he really does something that you like. He knows you don’t mean it but he’s immediately flooded with anger and guilt. He obviously didn’t realize how much the day had taken a toll on you and now you must be really mad if you’re going to Evan to get back at him.

“Oh my god Evan that’s too funny,” you giggle and place a hand on his shoulder, “you just made my day! I won’t tell Tim anything, it’ll be our little secret,” you wink. Evan’s blush deepens at the touch, maybe you weren’t so bad after all and if Max (and Amanda at this point) didn’t look out he would maybe ask you out for a drink sometime soon. Bring you back to the land of the living.

Deciding he’s absolutely had enough, Max quietly comes up behind Evan and slaps both hands on his shoulders after seeing you move yours back to your lap, causing him to freeze and let out a little squeak. “Slugger, I’m sure whatever’s going on here is just too funny, but didn’t I ask you to finish up that presentation for tomorrow’s meeting with NuevaWeight?” he pouts, “I really thought you were taking this job seriously buddy, but maybe I should just get Andrew to take over…”

“N-no Max, sorry. Yeah the presentation is almost done, it’ll be ready before the end of the day,” Evan stammers. Max finally meets your eyes and smirks, “and you can meet me in my office. Apparently you think you can stop doing your job and distracting my employees.”

You can’t even speak, your jaw set and eyes burning from the absolute rage you feel right now. Yeah you’ll meet him in his office, but it won’t be so he can lecture you about whatever bullshit he’s already thought of. “Of course Mr. Phillips, meet you there,” you manage to snap back, calmly making your way to his office. Anyone walking by you immediately gets out of your way, your anger coming off in waves making your undead coworkers shiver.

Clapping Evan on the shoulder one more time, Max saunters over to his office, ready to make you beg for his forgiveness after that little stunt. As soon as he opens his office door he realizes that won’t be happening.

You’re sitting in his chair, legs propped up on his desk in a way that makes your skirt ride up and expose more thigh than what HR might deem office appropriate. “Ah, Mr. Phillips, so nice of you to make it,” you smirk. “Sweets, I think there must be some sort of misunderstandi-'' you cut him off with a dark look and stand up. Walking up to him you close his office door and push him against it, “No champ,” you sneer, “I think you’re confused here. I’m not the one who decided to be a very, very bad boy by flirting with someone else and insulting me in front of new clients.” Chest to chest, your hand slithers up to grab Max’s throat. Even though he is a vampire who could toss you around like a ragdoll, you know he’s letting you be in control. He likes it.

“While you were out entertaining I’ve been thinking about what I could do to make you really sorry, baby. You were already on thin ice from this morning, but now you’re drowning,” you squeeze a little harder on his throat making his eyes roll back. “What are you gonna do? I’m so sorry,” he whispers. You take a moment, just looking into those eyes you love so much, before answering.

“Maybe I’ll sit on your cock. Let you fill my pussy up but not let you cum, because only good boys get to come, you know that Maxie. Maybe I’ll just use you like my own walking, talking dildo. If I’m so replaceable you won’t mind not getting to fill me up? Right?” You smirk again as he whines, his hands clenching because all he wants to do is make you feel good now. 

“You wanna run that mouth, Phillips? You wanna make everything think you’re so fucking special when I know you’re really just a scared little vamp, huh?” You say with a pout. Grabbing his hair, you force his head up so you can look right into his eyes that are now almost completely black from lust. “Come on big shot, if you wanna be a big boy then you gotta show me that mouth can do something other than just spew bullshit, slugger.” 

That’s all the permission he needs. He hoists you up in his arms and thanks to vampire speed you’re now sat on his leather couch, skirt up around your waist, underwear ripped clean off, fully exposed to his hungry eyes. “Baby, I’m so sorry,” he pouts, “let me make you feel good. I just want you-” You’ve heard enough, pushing him down so his mouth finally reaches your core. Moaning at finally tasting you, Max wastes no time taking your clit and sucking hard, already teasing your entrance with one of his long fingers. 

“Y-Yes Max, fuck! Be a good boy and make me cum just like this,” you moan and clench around the finger inside of you, knowing you’re absolutely dripping onto the couch underneath you. He adds a second, then a third, making you arch your back until you’re almost sitting up from how good he’s fucking you with his hands. His mouth doesn’t stop, sucking and licking, spelling out his apologies against your body. Knowing you’re close, he starts focusing on that spot inside of you that drives you wild. 

“Oh! Oh, Maxie yes. Such a g-good boy,” you pant, meeting his hand thrust for thrust trying to reach your high, “make me feel so good please please please baby I’m right there, I-” you can’t finish that sentence as your vision goes white and all you can do is let out a strangled moan that sounds like his name.

Once your legs start shaking you pull both of you up, undoing his belt and pushing him onto the couch so you can straddle his waist. You wrap a hand around his neck and start nipping at the area, rocking your soaked pussy along his aching cock that was now free from the confines of his dress pants a few times before sinking down on him. A wicked grin stretches across your face as his moans get louder. He chokes when he feels you gush around him, not expecting you to come again so soon but you were still sensitive from his mouth, the hair above his cock rubbing deliciously against your clit, but you wanted more still. 

Picking up the pace, you squeeze around his throat again and start taunting him, “You gonna replace me baby? Yeah? You gonna find a pussy that takes you this good? Be my guest. Go right now and find something better, or show me how goddamn sorry you are.”

Granting him permission to take over, Max flips you on your back, making sure your head is supported by one of the couch cushions. He immediately wraps your legs around his waist, angling one leg to let him sink even deep inside of you, your moans mixing together as you both revel in the feeling of him finally being inside of you. Wanting to prove himself he wastes no time pulling out just to start slamming back into you. 

You moan and clench around him, making him hiss and he doesn’t let up. Watching him disappear inside of you over and over again, he starts babbling his apologies. “N-Never baby. Could never replace you. Never gonna find a pu-pussy this fucking good. Look at you, so perfect, so so perfect taking my cock like that. I’m sorry. You’re so good. I don’t deserve it, it’s- fuck it’s so fucking good. Best pussy of all time,” he moans as you clamp down on him, your third orgasm ripping through you. 

“Yes - yes Max, that’s fucking r-right. I’m the best pussy you’ll ever have,” you moan again from being so full. You know he’s sorry so you decide to let him finish after all. Taking your hands off his shoulders, you start tangling your fingers in his hair and bring his face close to your so your lips are almost touching, “you did so good Maxie,” you coo, “you cock made me feel so fucking good I know you’re sorry now.” He shudders at your words but keeps his steady pace, trying to make you cum again, still holding back his own impending orgasm. “Thank you baby, ‘m so so sorry, I love you and I just wanna be good for you-” “shhh shhh Maxie, I know I know. You did good baby, now show me how good you are and cum inside of me.” 

That’s all he needs. 

Something between a groan and growl comes deep from within Max as he finally lets go, pushing himself as far as he can inside of you as he starts painting your walls. Coming down from his high, he nuzzles his face into the crook of your neck as you start peppering him with kisses wherever you can reach, carding your fingers through his hair.

“I’m really sorry baby,” you hear him mumble into your neck, “I love you.” He kisses along your throat and you hum, moving your head to give him more access. “I know Max, I love you too. I forgive you. But try that again and I’ll cut your dick off in front of the whole office,” you laugh.

He chuckles too, continuing to shower you with love. “As much as I want to stay right here forever baby, let’s go home and I can keep showing you how sorry I am,” he suggests, wiggling his eyebrows to earn a giggle from you, “sounds good Maxie, you’re lucky I’m just sooooo forgiving.”

Untangling from each other and making yourselves as presentable as you care to be, you leave the office hand-in-hand, ready to see what the rest of the night has in store.

#max phillips #max phillips x reader #max phillips x y/n #max phillips x you #pedro pascal fic #pedro pascal imagines #bloodsucking bastards

[drjackandmissjo]

float among the stars and fly to Mars and back

The Universe was infinite and limitless for some, and Feyre wanted to unfold all of its secrets. And if there were live beings outside of the Earth’s atmosphere, that would be even better than taking the journey into the unknown alone.

OR The Men In Black AU no one asked for

Feysand Masterlist --- Ao3 

Feyre Archeron had, since she had been a little girl, always believed that there must’ve been more to the Universe than their little Solar System.

Granted that there was nothing ‘little’ about a star and the nine planets (Viva la Pluto!) and the many other cosmic rocks that rotated around it, quite the opposite if you looked at it from the perspective of a tiny 7 years old, yet for Feyre, after her school had taken them to the city’s planetarium for a field trip, their Solar System had become undoubtedly small compared to the greatness of the unknown sky above. She had got home that day with stars in her eyes, literally because they had been given stickers of stars and planets, and she and her friends thought it was a good idea to stick them on their faces and eyelids, and had begun to constantly look up.

And she had not stopped since.

Many of her classmates laughed at her interest for the sky, thinking she only thought aliens were real because of movies and the TV, but the truth was that Feyre didn’t even want to acknowledge life outside of the Earth unless she had all the cold facts and hard proves laid out in front of her. To her, the Universe was a big adventure waiting to be explored, full of different atmospheres and gravities and temperatures, and it was simply wonderful. And yes, it was statistically impossible for such a vastity to have only one liveable planet, considering how well creatures could adapt to different environments, but that was not the point.

The Universe was infinite and limitless for some, and Feyre wanted to unfold all of its secrets. And if there were live beings outside of the Earth’s atmosphere, that would be even better than taking the journey into the unknown alone.

Which was why at 25 years of age, fresh off the most prestigious university in Prythian with a bachelor’s in aerospace engineering and a PhD in astrophysics, she had sent her curriculum all over the continent, to the best space programs and some. She had graduated valedictorian of her class, scored the highest marks with her thesis and just genuinely worked her ass off to maintain the full scholarship that had landed her at the Day Court University. She was gonna get what she deserved!

Or at least she thought. Weeks passed and she got no answer at all. She was not expecting to be submerged by requests but, by the Mother, at least some acknowledgement!

“No news is good news” wasn’t part of her vocabulary and she was growing impatient by the hour.

In the meantime, she still kept her job at a local library in her university town, not particularly wanting to go back home to her sisters who had never shown her any support in her academic career. Besides, it was not like they would provide for her anyway: she had learnt since a young age to take care of herself, knowing that if she didn’t nobody else would.

It was on the third week of no reply, that someone walked in the shop during her shift. A tall man in an impeccable black suit strutted in like a model on the runway. As soon as he opened the door, the bell rang, signalling a customer and letting Feyre slip on her Retail Smile, which she had practised for years to make it impeccable.

Coincidentally, it was also the same condescending smile she reserved to people who thought they knew more than her in her own field before she crushed them with stone cold facts without breaking a sweat. “Oh, you believe that astrology and astrophysics are the same thing? Sit your ass down, Tamlin, you’re in for a lecture,” had been one of her best moments, followed by a quick “Nothing’s in retrograde, Ianthe, you’re just a plain basic bitch.”

The customer was her dictionary definition of ‘hot’: elegant, tall, with deep russet brown skin and dark unruly curls that framed his forehead nicely. The stranger also knew how to wear a suit, which was a rarer and rarer phenomenon, that didn’t hurt a bit.

It was such a shame that he was clearly a douche, given that he wore dark sunglasses inside her little bookshop after the sun had already set down.

“Can I help you, sir?” she asked politely, watching as the customer scanned through the files of books mindlessly. He lazily reached up her counter with an entitled smile that almost made her punch him the face. “Could you point me to the sci-fi section, Darling?”

The fact that he looked like a thirty-something made the term somehow less creepy, or perhaps it was the fact that he was attractive. But Feyre could not, for the life of her, let that slide down. “I’m not your Darling” she said in her most saccharine voice while throwing daggers at the customer. She was completely out of fucks to give, stressed and anxious, half an hour away from closing time and with her manager on a vacation far away.

Besides, she doubted Alis would give her hell for mouthing an entitled but attractive customer who was patronizing her. If anything, she’d probably push Feyre to flirt with said attractive customer. Cauldron knew that woman wanted her to have a relationship more than anything!

“I apologize for my poor choice of words, I am truly sorry. Didn’t mean to sound rude nor impolite.”

Feyre was quickly taken aback. He truly did sound apologetic and not condescending at all. But he also could just be a great actor. She crossed her arms over her chest and pointedly looked at him, signalling that she was still not convinced by his behaviour.

She would usually be not this bold with customers, but there was something about the stranger that seemed to put her at ease and to let her nature pass through her nurture.

He scratched his neck, probably uncomfortable with the energy Feyre was radiating, and finally took off his sunglasses, revealing the most gorgeous pair of violet eyes she had ever seen.

Immediately, Feyre went from thinking he was a douchebag to understanding that his pretty eyes didn’t work. Which was probably why he didn’t take off the sunglasses at night.

But then why in the Hell would he take them under the store light and not outside, where it was already dark?

She was on the fence, too many contrasting details that sent her rational side derailing, looking for answers that she knew she wasn’t gonna get. Unless she played her cards right.

“Apology accepted” she claimed, truly smiling as she saw the hot stranger visibly relax.

“If his eyes are purple, that means that he’s basically blind, so where are his prescription glasses?” she wondered, eyeing him up and down as she would with any specimen to analyse for a lab. She was a scientist, after all, and Cauldron Damn Her, she needed answers to each and every puzzle that came in front of her.

“I am looking for the sci-fi section. Would it be possible for you to show it to me?” His voice was sensual and low, a rich baritone that seemed to be able to get to her very bones, if she wasn’t careful enough.

“Would you rather me show you our audible or kindle selection for the genre?” she quietly asked, trying to be as tactful as possible. She was only making assumptions with the tiniest bit of information by her side, after all, so she had to be careful not to make an ass out of herself.

“No, what for?”

There went it. The ease with the customer had said it made it completely clear that she was utterly mistaken. She quickly tallied her notions of genetics, trying to understand how such a colour could be created without a damaging mutation.

Realizing she still hadn’t answered and was actively zooming out, staring into the space between the stranger’s brows without really realizing it, Feyre shook her head, saying a quick “Never mind,” before leaning over the counter to point to her left.

Counterintuitively, that had not been the greatest of ideas. There she was, already on a rollercoaster with a rather pretty stranger in an empty store, leaning towards him without thought or restraint. “It’s down that row, you can’t miss it,” she quickly said, moving fast into her original position to avoid any more embarrassment, “There’s a sticker of a Martian next to the tag.”

The customer raised one of his brows in a RDJ-esque way, sparking even more interest in Feyre’s stomach. “How do you know what a Martian looks like?”

“I’ve been scarred by the Tim Burton movie, I’m pretty sure I won’t be able to forget them anytime soon!”

He nodded along, “Ah, yes. Apparently there had been a revolt after that film was released due to its controversial portrayal of the Martian Race, by making them look like a green oversized Arquillians. Such a bad political move, if you ask me, considering we’re right in their direct laser trajectory!” The stranger then laughed, a crystalline sound that resonated throughout the store as he began to walk away towards the direction Feyre had indicated.

She had been so entrapped by his laugh that it took a minute to register his words. He had already disappeared between the rows and all she could do was dumbly stare at the spot he had been as her eyes widened in shock.

“No fucking way in Hell!” her mind screamt as she stumbled to find a different solution to the situation at hand. He was clearly pranking her, saying words that didn’t really make sense. He had asked for the sci-fi section, after all! So he must’ve been a nerd, albeit a really hot one, that was just referencing some sort of obscure specie from an equally obscure piece of media.

The only problem was that she was a nerd that knew all of the obscure sci-fi knowledge. She had spent most of her life looking up at the stars and wishing to know more about them, and what better way to start than by watching and reading everything that had to do with her favourite topic. She was used to be on forums, to talk with people that had her same interest and to explore all her crazy theories.

And never once in her entire career as a proud nerd had she heard the term ‘Arquillians’. Vulcans and Krill and every single type of alien that made the Star Wars universe, sure. ‘Arquillians’, never once by mistake in the deepest bottom of reddit.

Feyre was about to debate with herself whether or not she should’ve run to the stranger to demand explanations, when he appeared in front of her, holding a copy of ‘The War of the Worlds’ by H. G. Wells, one of the most iconic books ever written and one of her personal favourites.

“He’s definitely messing with me” she reasoned as she grabbed the book and scanned it, ready to place it in a bag, when she noticed an envelope laying on her counter. It was a non-descriptive, black envelope with some sort of a six electron configuration in minimalistic drawn atomic orbitals. The image was wrong, depicting the electrons in a specific spot on the ellipse rather than in a general area in which they were thought to be empirically.

She raised her head up, looking expectantly into the stranger’s eyes and telling him as such. One of her hands also crept under the counter, towards the baseball bat Alis kept down there just in case.

“Wow. Took you less to realize it than most people!” he cheerfully said, his violet eyes shining with some unknown feeling behind them.

“Realize what?”

“That those are not electrons.”

She snorted at that, unable to keep her sarcasm in. “And what should they be? Wasps?” she asked, amused by their exchange as she grabbed his credit card to pay for the book. It was pitch black too, apparently like everything that revolved around the pretty stranger who was going to get his head open like a melon if he kept up with his antics.

“Why don’t you tell me, Miss Degree in Astrophysics.”

Feyre froze with her hand mid-air as she was giving him back his card. Her expression shifted in cold distance as she sobered up. They were getting on dangerous territory

She was far from powerless: she had a weapon at hand and several years of martial arts by her side, but she doubted she could take down someone the side of her customer in her skinny jeans and Avatar: The Last Airbender shirt. But there was also the counter separating them, which seemed protective enough for Feyre to answer his question.

“First of all, it’s only theorized and not proven, that planets could share an orbit around a star, but I fail to believe that three pairs would form this symbol without colliding against each other and disrupting the harmony of the system. Second, who the fuck told you that?”

“Well, you did, when you sent your exquisite curriculum around” he replied smoothly, without missing a beat.

That was the last straw of weirdness she was willing to witness. “This is getting very creepy and I’m gonna ask you to leave” she said coldly, grabbing the bat with both hands and leaning it over her shoulder, ready to attack if the necessity arose.

The stranger blinked twice and then took a step back, raising his hands in a placative motion. “Pardon me, I still have not grasped human social skills to the full extent, despite my long stay.”

“You are human” she retorted back, unable to keep her voice from shaking. This was absurd, ridiculous, impossible. This was everything she had ever hoped for since she was a child. This was a walking nightmare.

The smile he gave her didn’t look human, nor the way his violet eyes reflected the light, seeming to sparkle with amusement. His lips opened as his tongue wetted them, revealing sharp canines. Feyre had never seen a scene more captivating than when the stranger moved a strand of curly hair behind his ear with deliberate slowness, showing off the pointed tip of his ear. “Correction, I look humanlike.”

“You���re messing with me” she rationalized, refusing to believe that it was possible. Anyone could buy fake vampire teeth and elf ears at any Halloween store or online. But they usually didn’t look this real. Perhaps it was make-up: she had seen so many videos on YouTube and Instagram of artists literally transforming in different things with make-up.

He just shrugged, unaware of Feyre’s rocked existence. She both wanted to believe him and not. She didn’t know what she truly wanted.

“Why would I? I was just sent here by my agency to give you personally the invitation for a job interview, which I think you’ll find fascinating.”

She was speechless. Couldn’t even begin to think about where to start speaking.

This had to be the cruellest prank someone had ever pulled on her.

The stranger cleared his throat and moved once closer to the counter, resuming his initial position. Since Feyre didn’t seem to be hitting him anytime soon, he took the liberty to lean on the counter with his hands splayed out. He had long and lean fingers, like the ones of someone who played an instrument, a piano or a violin, and Feyre ignored the twist her stomach did at the sight.

If he wasn’t messing with her and if he was in actuality a fucking alien, would that be even allowed? Moral? Ethical?

“Look, I know you have an analytical mind, so I’ll be quick,” he began, his smooth voice washing over Feyre in an equally calming and disruptive way, “In case you have wondered why you still haven’t gotten a single reply for your applications, it’s because something big in Velaris is calling out to you. And my agency believes in dibs.”

“What’s there for me in Velaris?”

He smirked at her, a cocky gesture that made her want to strangle him quickly. “Don’t you wanna find out?”

Damn him, damn his perfect face, damn everything. Feyre had many strengths: she was patient, passionate, artistic, kind. But her downfall would always be her curiosity, her desperate want to know.

“I don’t particularly want to get murdered, so no” she tried to play it cool, but inside she was burning alive. Every muscle was taut, every nerve active. She hoped he couldn’t see through her bluff, she prayed the Mother he didn’t think her to be a pathetic little girl.

The Alien, it was impossible in her mind to call him that even if he had confessed it in the most subtle way possible, regarded her with shiny eyes and a grin that promised trouble.

Feyre had always been terrible at staying away from trouble.

“Pity. We could’ve used someone with your talents. If you change your mind…” he motioned to the black envelope, that still laid on the counter untouched. Too many Mission Impossible movies told her that the message was most likely to destroy itself after it opened.

Slipping his sunglasses back on, the alien turned around to leave and suddenly Feyre realized she didn’t want him too. She had too many questions.

“Wait!” she called as he had his hands on the handle. He slowly turned around and looked at her expectantly. Or at least she thought he was: there was no way of seeing his violet eyes behind the black lenses. Suddenly, all of the questions that had filled her mind a moment prior escaped her grasp. Except one.

“Let’s pretend I believe you. What are you?”

The smile he gave her was genuine, blinding and warm. “I am an Illyrian, but I doubt you know of us.” Then, as if in an afterthought, he added. “I’m Rhys, by the way.” She couldn’t understand why he looked sheepish out of the blue, it was almost as if he was a teenager revealing a secret crush.

“Feyre.”

“Well, in that case. I hope to see you soon, Feyre Darling.” And with that, he left her utterly alone, with a black envelope and stars in her eyes.

Part Two: The Letter

Feyre had waited until she had gotten home to even think about the black envelope, least of all to open it where someone could immediately walk in with their prying eyes.

Not that she would have had any, after all she was just about to close shop for the weekend and the only people she was in speaking terms with were Alis, who would never call her at such a late hour, and the stray tabby cat that lived near her building and for whom she always left some milk and some food whenever she went out to work. She had playfully began to call him Lucien, after a former college friend she had fallen out with that shared the same ginger hair with the cat, and constantly damned her landlord for his ‘no pets allowed’ policy, but alas, she couldn’t do more.

She had always appreciated her privacy, but lately it had become very close to loneliness, with her being too engrossed with her work to maintain a social group of friends. Not like she missed the assholes she used to hand out with in college anyway. They could all rot in their expensive clothes and expensive cars and expensive degrees, cause Daddy Dearest is a powerful donor and alumni.

Yet it wouldn’t have been so bad to have someone to hang out with when her mind became too loud.

Not too bad, if the alien, “Rhys” she reminded herself, was to be believed. The Night Court was adjacent to Day, but she had left nothing there worth justifying the trip back in case she did move to Velaris.

Velaris. The city of starlight, they called it. Feyre had always wanted to visit, but never could afford it with her tight budget and her focused plan to graduate valedictorian. In the end, she only got that, her impeccable career, which was truly the only thing she cared about. Loneliness was feeble compared to her fear of failure in what she believed was her destiny. It is a funny thing, destiny, it smacks you in the face when you least expect it, and smack Feyre in the face in the form of a very attractive stranger with possibly the best news ever it did.

She had almost expected him to appear out of the blue as she walked back home. Thankfully, he didn’t, but that didn’t mean she slowed her pace before being inside her complex doors and that didn’t mean she didn’t have her keys at hand throughout the entire journey.

It almost felt like she couldn’t breathe properly before she got inside, door locked twice behind her as she leaned against it to help her mind to stop spinning.

Too many things had happened in a too short time for her to cope properly. She needed answers, but she equally needed a strong drink.

It wasn’t until she had managed to calm down her beating heart, that Feyre sat down at her desk and placed the black envelope on her closed laptop.

“This better not be a sick joke” she thought as she ran a paper cutter through the edges. She had wasted too much time on this already for it to be fake or, worst, disappointing.

The paper inside was, predictably, black. She could start to see a theme, linking everything that had happened to her that evening.

The silver writing was subtle and not to bright, perfect to not cause her an headache reflecting the light from her reading lamp.

Feyre almost expected to see alien signs and letters, to not be able to understand what was written as some sort of challenge to test her knowledge. Luckily for her and her dyslexia, it was in English. Still a struggle, but very doable.

“Doctor Archeron,

We have been sent a copy of your resumé from one of our affiliates. We apologise if this letter comes out as brusque due to the circumstances of your possible recruitment.

We are more than pleased to inform you that we have envisioned your request. Our Agency specializes in your field and your accomplishments are remarkable. We are particularly interested in your research in the attrite of different materials against the atmosphere, which you created a masterful thesis around, we were mostly drawn by your detailed research with the Martian atmosphere.

We know that was not part of your resumé, but we have read it and it is very insightful.

We would appreciate if you were willing to come to Velaris for an Interview with our Head of the Research Department. We think you would be interested in a position and we are open to discuss a fortuitous partnership.

In case the way you received this letter was not direct enough, Our Agency values privacy and secrecy above all, and therefore we would request for you to not discuss of this with anyone.

Attached you will find your scheduled meeting time with the address, plus a train ticket to reach Velaris and the booking of an already paid room.

We are truly hoping to be able to work with you.

Our Best Regards,

MIB”

Feyre had to read the letter three times, for the meaning to stick in her head.

Any thought of it being a joke flew out of the window. No one in their right mind would ever read what her supervisor had claimed to be a ‘monstrosity of twenty pages without pictures about materials and Star Trek’ simply for a joke. No matter how well thought the joke could be, the Mars piece was the penultimate point of her research, before the conclusion and not even featured in the syllabus.

Her mind became crowded with a thousand different thoughts. Her emotions were all over the place, running around and doing flips and diving into her subconscious.

She leaned back on her chair, letter momentarily forgotten on her desk as she covered her eyes with her hands and just focused on her breath.

In, hold, out. In, hold, out.

She could rationalize this, just like she did everything else in her life. She had jumped to conclusions with her emotions only once in the past 10 years since she had started college, following her loneliness and the pressure to date the guy that screamt red flags for many reasons, yet she had ignored them all because he was gentle at first, filthy rich and nice looking.

Never again, she swore to the mirror after she had managed to end the toxic relationship that had developed.

Feyre did what any rational person would in her situation: grabbed a pen and a piece of paper and wrote down a list of pros and cons.

PROS:

Job opportunity in my field

ALIENS?

Secret Organization

Area 51?!

Already estranged from family

Secrets!

Velaris!

Best food

The Rainbow

Seaside

Best Library in Prythian

Snow in the winter

Fresh Start

CONS:

Moving

Finding a place

Totally new city

Know literally no one

Have to quit job with Alis

Already told her I was waiting for replies

She has a replacement ready

Could still be a prank

Too complicated to be a prank

Definitely an opportunity

Am I really thinking about saying no?

It took her longer to come up with cons. Besides, her gut told her to do it, and so far it had never lead her astray.

Worst case scenario: she comes back and waits around for another reply to her resumé.

Best case scenario: the job of the literal dreams, that can possibly exceed expectations, in her favourite city in the entire world.

Besides, she already had a paid train ticket to and from Velaris and an already paid room in what, if the website was to be believed and it was, was a 5 stars hotel in the creative centre of the city.

Before she could doubt herself even further, she grabbed her phone and shoot a quick text to Alis. The older woman didn’t believe in phone calls past 8 pm, considering her nephews would be already asleep by then, or at least she hoped they would.

Her thumb ran over the keyboard as she frantically wrote, in the most cryptical wording known to womankind, that she would have a job interview in the Winter Court on Monday and that she needed the day off. It didn’t matter that she was going to the Night Court and that her meeting was scheduled for Sunday at 11 am, she figured that, if she had to be secretive, better start as soon as possible!

Feyre didn’t move from her position with her phone pressed tightly in her hands until, ten minutes later, Alis replied with a thumbs up emoji, followed by ‘you’re wasted at retail’.”

Feeling lighter than she had in months, she rushed into her room to begin to pack for the upcoming weekend. The train would leave the next afternoon and would get her back Monday after lunchtime. She had to prepare, in case she could go out on Sunday night for a ‘I JUST GOT THE JOB OF MY DREAMS!’ celebration and shenanigans.

Perhaps with a very cute and nice alien with violet eyes, she thought as butterflies fluttered in her stomach at the idea.

Part Three: The Agent

Her old pencil skirt clashed with the aesthetic of the entire building.

At first she had thought that the whole black attire Rhys was wearing when they met was only due to personal preference, and that the black letter was used to be more secretive or something along those lines. Yet when she hopped, literally hopped on the pavement out of excitement, off the taxi she had taken from the hotel, she immediately realized her error.

To say that they were peculiarly attached to their aesthetic was an understatement: floors, walls, dresses, desks. Everything stuck to the black and white palette, making Feyre extremely aware that she had underdressed as she stuck out like a sore thumb.

In her defence, that was her lucky outfit: hair tight in a professional bun, glasses because she couldn’t be bothered with contacts on important mornings, white blouse and beige skirt she had bought for her graduation in high school and that she had worn to every job interview since then.

Of course, she had brought a full professional black outfit from home, but she had decided that morning not to take a chance. So far, that combo had never failed her, and it wasn’t going to betray her now, by the looks of it.

Upon arriving to Velaris the night before, she had spent the entire time daydreaming about what would happen that morning. Countless of scenarios had created and resolved themselves in her mind. But nothing could have prepared her for what she saw as soon as she walked into the address the letter had given her.

It was a perfectly non-descriptive building, something akin a factory that had been converted in offices or lofts, inconspicuous amongst the other nearly identical buildings. Perfect if you didn’t want to be found. But while the outside looked like it hadn’t been renovated in over a century, inside it was completely different.

It was modern, sharp and very Tardis like. And it apparently had several levels underground, so it was ‘bigger in the inside’!

She couldn’t keep her awe in, because not even a few steps in and a short and scary looking woman came approaching her, her silver eyes blazing. “Every human has the same impression” she said in lieu of a greeting, and Feyre could only stand there and nod dumbly.

The woman, if she was human at all, reached to shake her hand, “My name is Amren, I am the chief of MiB. I assume you are not familiar with our Agency, correct?” her voice was cold and dangerous and Feyre had no doubt in believing that she might not be from Earth at all, if her ancient like eyes didn’t give her away.

“No, ma’am, I’m not” she replied curtly, unsure of what to say. No, she had not heard of their Agency. Stars, that was the first time someone had referred to it with its proper name! But she had also dug as deep as she could, trying to find information about all that crazy situation, conscious that her every move must’ve been tracked.

Amren gave her an appraising nod, as if she knew every single detail of Feyre’s life, “As you should” she said calmly, before beginning to walk away, motioning for Feyre to follow her through a maze of bodies and beings and desks. She was kind enough to point a race there, a post here, but refused to get too much into detail. “You’ll find someone else to ask” had been her curt reply before resuming her random naming game.

She only stopped leading her around when they reached a black shiny door that was open, revealing on the inside the only colour in the entire building, or at least that was what Feyre thought. Inside, there was one of the most gorgeous females Feyre had ever seen, long golden hair in contrast with her tan skin, a red dress that hugged her like a second skin, and a smile that could blind and that could counter as a weapon, if needed. When she saw them approach, she immediately jumped to her feet with agility and elegance. “Hello! I am Mor!” she chirped with enthusiasm, avoiding Feyre’s outstretched hand and going straight for a hug. Amren loudly scoffed, “Be professional, Morrigan,” she reprimanded the blonde, who simply winked at her before returning to her side of the desk, motioning for Feyre to seat.

She awkwardly looked at Amren, trying to convey her disorientation through her eyes alone. There wasn’t a name tag at the door, not any indication of what was going to happen. For all Feyre knew, they could be about to wipe her memory clean and dispatch of her in the garbage.

“I hope I will see you around, Dr Archeron” was her only reply, before leaving her alone with Morrigan, who still hadn’t diminished her smile.

“If they made me come all the way up here just to kill me, I’ll be pissed.”

“Dr Archeron, please have a seat, we have quite a lot to discuss.” Morrigan then proceeded open an enormous folder and began to pull out all sort of wavers, undoubtedly that Feyre would need to sign to give her life away. Mother Help Her, what had she gotten herself into?

“So,” she began, her energy still up and running as she maintained a kind and comforting expression, “Feyre, can I call you Feyre? Am I pronouncing it correctly?”

She could only nod quickly, before she was once more submerged by the blonde’s voice.

“Marvellous! I’m sure you want to know what in the Cauldron is happening, right? I mean, you get a letter that basically tells you to uproot your entire family and that you’ll have a job, but it’s described as vaguely as heck and you get here blindly and possibly terrified. Trust me, I know the feeling, it sucks. But it does get away pretty quickly. Now, you’ve got questions, right?”

“Yes, ma’am,”

“Please, call me Mor.” Her eyes were kind, a deep brown that harmonized perfectly with the rest of her, and Feyre didn’t have it in her heart to disagree. After all, if things went well, as they seemed to be going, they’d be on first name basis. Stars, maybe they’d even be friends!

“Mor. Very well,” she gave her a quick smile, trying to keep her nerves down, “Will you be the head of my department?” “Cauldron no!” she laughed, so crystalline and contagious that Feyre almost followed suit, or at least she would have, if her heart wasn’t practically beating out of her chest. “That’s Azriel, you’ll meet him soon. I’m just HR and well, I’ll walk you through this major life change. Is it okay?” “Oh, yes, of course. Truth to be told, I don’t even know what I’m here for.”

How pathetic it was of her, to go to a foreign Court without even knowing what she could be facing. But, no matter how much she thought about it, her brain couldn’t wrap around what a secret agency could want for little old her. Sure, she was brilliant and hardworking, but she was also young. And employers didn’t like young.

Mor gave her a sympathetic smile, slightly nodding her head as she moved some papers around, looking for something. “I know, I hate having to be so secretive whenever we recruit, it only leads to confusion. The number of people that refused to be interviewed just because they thought it was a prank it’s concerning.” “I did believe it to be a cruel joke in the beginning…” she trailed off, still not 100% positive that it wasn’t. “I’m so sorry about that. That’s the downside of being in a Secret Agency that deals with Aliens! But let’s get down to business!”

Feyre couldn’t resist: in the quietest voice possible, she filled the space Mor’s voice had left, uttering the most indiscernible ever “To defeat the Huns!”

She knew she had made a mistake when Mor stopped with a sheet of paper mid-air to look at her expectantly. ‘SHIT’ was her only thought as she stumbled to apologize in the least embarrassing way possible: “Sorry, I don’t know what came to me, it’s just a silly song from…” But Mor cut her off enthusiastically. “Mulan, yeah! One of my favourites. I’m pretty sure we’re on the way to become best friends, Feyre!”

Her smile was blinding, and for the first time since she had stepped foot out of the Velaris train station, Feyre felt herself relax. It had been quite a while since someone didn’t mock her for still knowing all the words to Disney Songs and it had been quite a while since someone seemed to truly want a friendship with her. She wasn’t used to this anymore.

Her throat constricted and all she could do was nod, suddenly filled to the brim with emotions. “I just have a couple of questions that you have to fill out for me, before we can move on to what you’ll do and, most importantly, how much’ll be. Spoiler alert, high secrecy means high cash!”

“That should be your slogan!” She accepted the pen that was given her, ready to start and finish this. Nerves wore out into excitement and she was about to combust. “I’ve been trying to have them change it for ages.”

She chuckled lightly, before giving her entire razor sharp focus to the piece of paper. She could already imagine the questions: was she able to do this mathematical equation? Could she resolve that chemistry problem? Did she know this and that Law Of Physics?

But nothing, truly nothing, could have prepared her for the little array in front of her.

For on the paper, there were written five questions, with adjacent a ‘YES’ or ‘NO’ to be crossed.

Feyre could just raise her puzzled eyes up at Mor, who gave her a shrug and went back to re-apply her blush and highlighter.

She expected to do calculations, to waste time. She didn’t expect to be done in less than three minutes.

‘Do you have living relatives?’ YES

‘Are you in contact with any of them?’ NO

‘Do you have a relationship or partnership?’ NO

‘Are you able to keep calm under pressure?’ YES

‘Are you able to swim?’ YES

“That’s it?” Feyre asked, unable to put together the pieces in front of her. To be honest, the thing that was bugging her the most was the last question. That was the most out of it.

Mor simply smiled at her, giggling a little, “Yeah, we wouldn’t have sent you that letter if we weren’t sure you could take it,” she happily said before taking the paper and scrutinizing with analytical eye. “You’d be surprised by the number of people who can’t swim” she stated, answering her unspoken question with a disbelieving look and a shake of her head.

“Excellent, by the way.”

“Thank you, it was a pretty hard test!” Feyre joked, momentarily terrified of having said the worst thing, before Mor followed her suit with her laugh.

“I know! But it’s mostly to check finally what we already knew.”

Feyre snorted at that, “Good to know I was being watched.” It wasn’t that big of a problem anyway: every single social media used their private information to get money, so of course a secret agency about freaking aliens would keep a possible employee in check! “If it’s any comfort, you won’t be from now on. It’ll be like you never existed or…” “Died?” “Yeah. Morbid, I know, but it’s the price of the job,” Mor claimed, sliding a folder with her name on it over the glass desk. “Not really a problem, I’ve got no one that would miss me too much,” she quickly said, opening it up and almost falling off her chair. The first page was a detailed list of what she would earn and it was a lot. Probably more than her entire tuition would have costed if she hadn’t managed to get a scholarship, and all of that for one year?

“You weren’t kidding about the slogan, uh?”

On the next few pages there was written down a non-disclosure contract, which was understandable, and the secrecy policy she would have to follow. Bye-bye Instagram! Not like she used it much anyway, there were too many pictures of marriages and babies for her liking, and she didn’t like already to share every minute of her private life over social media.

And, finally, on the last page was the thing she was most scared and excited of: the inscription told her that she would work on the research department, studying what she loved the most and finally getting all the answers she needed. She could be able to explore the stars from her desk and also in person, with trips to adjourn her curriculum and work! A tiny little clause on the bottom also read that she could be assigned intergalactic! field! work! alongside of an agent, if the situation arose.

She couldn’t help herself when tears started to swell her eyes and fell down her cheeks in two streaks, nor she cared if she was ruining her make up.

She had never been happier.

“What do you thing, Feyre?” Mor was suddenly nervous, as if doubting that her answer would be anything other than a big fat yes. Probably seeing her cry didn’t seem like a good sign and all Feyre could do was nod enthusiastically as she gladly accepted the box of tissues the blonde woman was handing her. She knew she must’ve looked awful and batshit crazy.

“Where do I sign?” she asked finally, after having managed to regain her composure, wiping the rundown mascara from her cheeks, trying not to smudge it all over her face.

What followed was a quick work on the paperwork, the proper signature and stamp and boom! “Welcome to MiB, Dr Archeron!” declared Mor, jumping to her feet to cross the desk and to bend down and hug.

Feyre held her just as tight, trying to keep all the emotions away. Later, after getting back to her hotel room, she’d have all the time in the world to cry as much as she wanted, but now there were more pressing matters. “Ready?” asked Mor, dragging her away from her office and into a maze of halls that Feyre didn’t even bother to try and memorize. She’d have all the time in the world to do so, after all.

Their first stop was on the wardrobe and armoury, where she got her measurements taken and was fitted in the most exquisite looking black suit she had ever seen in real life, the materials soft and luxurious under her fingers.

“This feels like a 007 movie,” she joked, marvelling at the figure she cut in the mirror, immediately finding Mor grinning at her.

“Our gadgets actually work,” Mor fired back, causing Feyre to go into a fit of giggles that had the blonde join almost immediately.

It was a wondrous feeling, being able to connect instantly with someone. She had rarely had meaningful friendships and relationships in her life, some of them were entirely faked from the other side and she was just used for someone else’s gain, but she hoped that what was beginning with Mor could fall into one of those categories.

Truth to be told, she didn’t think having any romantic relationship would be the best thing when just moving into a new city and a new job, but she was a sucker for Friends To Lovers trope and who knew? Maybe the future could be bright for her, and not only in her work life.

There was also the topic of a certain pair of violet eyes that had occupied her mind for the previous two days, but she was pretty sure that was a hopeless route: no one in their right mind could take a liking of her, especially when they looked like that.

She was so lost in her own mind, trying to scratch away the way Rhys’ smile had made her insides turn into gelatine, that she didn’t realize Mor had taken her in front of a slightly ajar black door. Without seeing the label on it, she could understand where she was by Mor’s little excited squeal as she pushed the door open with a flare.

If it was possible, Feyre’s eyes would turn into anime hearts and stars, in a typical Sailor Moon fashion. Inside, after a set of stairs, there were rows of desks, surrounded each by microscopes and spectrometers. Humans, or humanoids, and aliens alike wore black lab coats, contrasting with the white of the walls and the equipment, working alongside each other in harmony. There were several grand doors, religiously black, on the back of the room, which she assumed lead to the bigger equipment.

She had never seen anything more beautiful. At university their laboratory had been severely restricted and she would have to rely on other’s data, but here the possibilities seemed to be endless.

“Pretty, right?” asked Mor, a smile on her face. Pretty didn’t even begin to cover.

“For a specialist, pretty would be an understatement” a quiet voice chimed in, seemingly out of the shadows and making Feyre jump to her feet and hold to the rail for dear life. The voice belonged to a man wearing a white lab coat with black accents, politely extending his right hand at Feyre to shake it. “Dr Archeron, I am Agent A.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, sir,” came her trepid reply. She didn’t know why, but she immediately was washed over by the impression that this man, if he was human, was more dangerous than he might let on. Be it the fact that he looked like he blended in the shadows and belonged alongside of them or be the act that he had freaking wings? Holy Cauldron how had Feyre not realized that he had wings, proper angel-like feathery wings that grew from his skin and seemed to ruffle under her gaze and, Dear Mother, she was about to faint.

She knew her eyes must’ve reached a comical stance as she took them in, when Mor gently pushed her with her shoulder. “You can call him Azriel. After all, you’re the one with a PhD!” the blonde cheerily said, winking at her and bringing her back to the reality at hand.

Feyre gave him an apologetic look, trying to make amends for the staring, but he didn’t seem bothered at all. He gave them a soft smile and nodded his head gravely alongside Mor’s words: “Unfortunately, that is true. I did not attend Earth university. In Illyria we have a different education” he explained, beginning to walk towards the door at his back and motioning for them to follow.

“You’re Illyrian?” Feyre asked, suddenly remembering her first alien encounter as her cheeks heated up. She wondered if she might be able to see him again, even only to thank him for bringing her the envelope. She knew that he must have been only following orders, but he didn’t have to stay and make sure she didn’t freak out too much.

She was met back by a puzzled stare from Azriel and a shrug from Mor, who momentarily looked at each other as to confirm that that was probably an information she wasn’t allowed to know yet. “And you are familiar with our specie because...?” began to ask Azriel, a suspicious tone in his voice that made Feyre froze from the inside. It wasn’t even her first day and she had already fucked up big time, that was a new record!

She was about to reply, to defend herself, when a deep voice came from the door, which opened from the inside and revealed two figures standing there: one had matching wings as Azriel’s and the other was someone she didn’t think she’d meet again so soon.

“Because I introduced her to our existence, dear brother” Rhys said, violet eyes sparkling as a wide smile appeared on his lips.

“Hello, Feyre Darling.”

She couldn’t fight the stupid smile that took up her face at his sight, nor she could control the way her cheeks flared up, the redness there for anyone to see.

The man that stood next to him eyed her up and down with a puzzled expression, his brown eyes twinkling with understanding as he, not so lightly and not so subtly, elbowed Rhys on the side, causing him to wince. “First of all: Hi, I’m Cassian,” he started, holding his hand out for Feyre to shake, “Second: You’ve met?” he asked, gaze running back and forth between them as his eyebrows shot up comically and emphatically.

If the ground decided to open up at that specific moment in space and time and swallow her whole down, Feyre would be okay with it. Extremely okay with it. Actually, she’d bring a shovel to sink down lower if necessary. “He brought me the envelope…” she whispered, trying to draw the least attention to herself and justifying the entire thing in the least embarrassing way possible. “Of course, cause mailing it would’ve been too mainstream, right, Agent R?” Azriel chuckled, hands in his pockets as he leaned against the doorframe casually, wings folding behind him.

Rhys fretted nonchalance with a wave of his hand and a bored expression: “I was going to be in the city anyway, I thought, why waste money on stamps?”

Out of all the things that had happened to Feyre in that weekend, that must’ve been the weirdest. “You were going to mail it? So much for secrecy!” she exclaimed in disbelief, eyes darting to Mor as if asking confirmation about it all and at the same time trying to understand if they were secretly pranking her.

“You’d be surprised about how many postal offices rely on aliens to work” came her curt reply, followed by a solemn nod from the three males.

She’d have all the time to understand if they were pulling her legs or not, and all the time for an eventual payback, she reasoned, dropping the subject without too much fuzz. “Alright,” she croaked, shrugging her shoulders and turning expectantly to Azriel, waiting for her superior to say something.

He cleared his throat and clasped his hands together, ushering both Rhys and Cassian away from what Feyre assumed was his office. “All of you, that’s enough! I have to finalize my work with Dr Archeron before we’re ready to properly start.”

“Not so fast, brother!” Cassian yelled, chest puffed out as he languidly strolled over to where Feyre stood, towering over her. She had to resist the urge to clutch to Mor’s arm for dear life.

“Do you know how to fight?” “Ten years of Karate when I was a child and 4 of Krav Maga between high school and college,” she replied without missing a beat, raising a brow in a silent question as she held his stare.

After a couple of heartbeats, Cassian’s face broke into a wide grin: “Impressive! I’ll hold you to that one of those days,” he said, leaning almost conspiratorially and blocking Azriel’s face from her view, who yelled in outrage a very shocked “Agent C!”. He was pointedly ignored by Cassian, or Agent C, ‘What’s up with that?’ she wondered as she looked up at him, who kept on talking.

“I’ve got only one more question: do you know anyone in the city?”

She didn’t know how to reply nor why it was suddenly their topic of discussion? Was this guy hitting on her in the most random, yet not the most  uncalled, way ever? She should mention that long hair was a turn off, no matter how manly and in style the man-bun was supposed to be. “I can give you two replies,” she cockily stood her ground, crossing her arms at her chest and assuming a defensive stance, just in case she had to headbutt him in the chin, “no and technically I shouldn’t be supposed to so…”

He took one look at her before clasping his hand on her shoulder with raw force, giving her what seemed to be the most platonic expression of affection ever: “Okay, I officially like you! But you’ve just got a new job, you ought to celebrate!”

Feyre considered it. On one hand, she had brought an outfit specifically in the case she got the job, which she clearly had just gotten and had to work out only the minimal details. And partying alone in a city she didn’t know at all was not an option. On the other, she really didn’t know these people.

But one look into Mor’s direction and instantaneously she knew that she’d love to hang out with them all.

Her only reply was a quick yes in affirmation, but she was soon overpowered by Mor’s cheers. “YES! We can go out together! We’ll show you Velaris’ night life!” she cried out in happiness, hand up to high five Feyre as Cassian held her closer to his side and fist-bumped the air.

She was having quite a bit of trouble, not liking small spaces and Cassian’s side hug was definitely a tight fit. She wanted to remove herself from the position, to try and regain the control of her breathing that was starting, so very subtly, to accelerate alongside her discomfort.

These people seemed nice and wanted to include her, her rational brain knew that, but old wounds didn’t always manage to mend right and panic was rising. Feyre tried to speak, but her throat felt constricted, and her eyes darted around the two, hoping one of them would stand down a little.

Luckily for her, her knight in black armour arrived just in the nick of time before she erupted like a volcano. “Let her breathe! Mor, Cassian, back off from poor Feyre,” Rhys intervened, helping her untangle from Cassian’s limb and letting her have her space. He quickly let her regain her breathing as the pair moved to Azriel, their next prey. The man was shaking his head as they both raised valid arguments and Cassian ‘Triple Dared’ him not to be a killjoy.

That scene alone served to strengthen her resolve to hang out with them, only to be able to witness the pure and unadulterated chaos that would come out undoubtedly.

All of the sudden, it felt like she and Rhys were in a different plane, the others to engrossed in their planning of the night to pay them attention. “Thanks. But, yeah. I have no idea where to go and I suppose I deserve it” she joked, laughing lightly while cringing internally at her own awkwardness. She had always been able to flirt her way through any situation, be it with men or women or anything in between, yet with him she felt like an high school girl with a crush. Perhaps it was because he was a literal alien that looked like an ancient Greek god and had a smile that managed to lit up Feyre from the inside.

Smile he was now giving her freely and without restraints. She could feel the butterflies in her stomach, count each one of them.

“How are you finding out agency so far?” he asked, as a hint of colour appeared on his cheeks out of the blue. A blink and it was gone, so quickly that Feyre thought she might have imagined it.

She was about to reply that she hadn’t done much sight-seeing, self-doubting whether or not she should push herself to ask for a tour or if it was too forward too soon, when a loud voice interrupted her train of thought.

“Shut up!” Azriel bellowed from behind her, causing both hers and Rhys’ attention to turn to him expectantly. “All of you have more important things to do other than bother me and Dr Archeron. And no, Agent C, while we’re at work we use our titles so stop talking! We’ll tune in the details later, Agent M, but I assume you have other more pressing business to attend.”

“Actually…!” Cassian had begun to disagree, but Rhys had been quicker and had planted his hand over his mouth, effectively shutting him up.

He quickly nodded to Azriel as he struggled to maintain his hold as Cassian put on a childish fight, that culminated with him licking Rhys’ hand like he was some sort of overgrown five year old on the school ground. Feyre couldn’t help the laugh that got out of her at Rhys’ affronted face.

“That’s enough!” he yelled, moving to shoo away both Cassian and Mor, who pulled Feyre in a tight hug before leaving and whispered in her ear ‘I’m so glad you’re part of us now!’. She could only respond back with a squeeze, her throat constricting with sudden emotion.

“Agent A, we’ll get out of your hair now.”

“Thank you, Agent R, I appreciate that!” came the exasperated reply from Azriel, who immediately disappeared inside his office, undoubtedly to avoid any more anarchy, motioning for Feyre to follow. She turned around to salute and wave goodbye at the improbable trio leaving, only to find Rhys standing in the doorway, looking at her.

He winked, causing Feyre’s cheeks to heat up, and bowed gracefully. “Welcome on board, Feyre Darling,” he said, before disappearing into the labyrinth of hallways and glass that made up the MiB headquarters.

Feyre pinched herself, closing her eyes and breathing deeply. One more step and she was done, she would finally have her dreams answered.

She’s have her answers, her opportunities, what she worked her entire life for. And if she could manage to have the life she had always wanted, with people that cared about her, that would be the icing on a perfect cake.

A part of her brain whispered that she didn’t deserve it, that she was an imposter and that everyone would realize it. But Feyre had had several years of experience in dealing with her own negativity, considering herself a pessimist as a coping mechanism because it was easier to expect the worse in every situation, and immediately shut that voice down, focusing her breathing to steady her beating heart.

Sending up a prayer to the Mother, she closed the door at her back and took a seat in front of Azriel, slipping on her glasses and putting her hands flat on the table.

“Shall we begin?”

#to the stars who queue #feyre archeron #feyre #rhysand #feyre x rhysand #feysand #feyre x rhys #feysand fanfictions #Azriel #morrigan #cassian #amren #acotar #acotar ff #ff #fanfiction #acomaf #acowar #acofas #au #alternate universe #modern setting #MIB AU #Men in Black #aliens #spies and secret agents #comfort #happy ending #scientist!Feyre

[dc-x-readers]

Protect (Zatanna Zatara x Reader)

Request from @freedomfighterposts Request to have a Zatanna x fem reader where Zatanna wants to practise more of her physical abilities and seeks out reader who trains people like Jason Todd to help train her. Zatanna gets enamoured by readers sweaty, glistening abs and muscles and acts very submissive to reader but then Z uses magic to impress reader into getting a fancy date which reader isnt the most comfortable with where its zatannas turn to act dominant.

I am aware that Zatanna was a part of the original group for Young Justice, but I have decided to ignore that for the sake of this story. In this Imagine Zatanna joined Young Justice around the time Donna Troy did. I got a little carried away with this one. Sorry

You lived your life by two rules: Keep moving, and don’t get killed. They seemed to be simple rules, but somehow they consumed your entire life.

You had been a nomad of sorts since you turned fifteen, moving from place to place just long enough so that you could survive. That all changed when you met a half feral Jason Todd. He was scared, strong and angry, just arising from the Lazurus pit, and you felt pity. So you taught him how to fight, and how to kill, his previous mentor had done a good job with defensive techniques, but Jason had been sorely lacking on the offensive.

When Jason announced he was going home, you went with him. Because why the hell not? You had already been in one place too long, and you liked Jason, he was like a little brother.

In Gotham, after the whole debacle with Jason and his father, Jason introduced you to the Batman. Jason said you were the best trainer out there, and Batman didn’t believe it.

Batman asked to spar with you, no weapons, just one on one. You knew Batman was strong, he was an inch or two taller than Jason, who towered over you, and he was seemingly built with all muscles. Besides that he had experience. But you agreed, because Jason wanted this, and you would do anything for the stupid boy.

You and Batman circled each other, your fists raised to fight. He attacked first, coming at you with a powerful swing. You planted yourself to look as if you were going to block the move, but at the last second circled away. Batman stumbled forward slightly, but he turned quickly with a kick to you gut. It knocked you back, but you countered with three rapid punches.

The fight went on for fifteen minutes, before Batman finally knocked you down. You were both sweaty and tired.

From beneath his cowl you saw Batman grin slightly, he had won, but you had put up one hell of a fight. Almost his equal in the match.

“If you want Y/N.” Batman said, “I have a job for you.”

And you did want, because it let you be close to your chosen brother. Batman appointed you the trainer of Young Justice, a group of teenage heroes. And your first lesson would be the following day.

You arrived in Mount Justice about a half hour early, Jason by your side. He was no longer a member of the little sidekick group, but he wanted to be here with you on your first day. You didn’t tell him you were grateful, but he knew.

He knew you weren’t the best with social interactions, a side effect of living on the road for so long, connections were hard for you to make. Jason being here was his way of supporting you.

The Young Justice members came into the room, most one time, a few moments late.

“To start I want to train one on one with each of you. Five minutes sparring with me, see where you are all at. And no use of powers, I want to see your innate ability.” You stated, and began to pull your shirt over your head, leaving you in a sports bra.

You shirt covered you face when you heard running footsteps, the a voice breathlessly saying, “Sorry that I’m…”

The girl trailed off, and you threw your shirt to the side seeing a youn g woman with long black hair and a ridiculous costume. She was staring at you with a slack jaw and wide eyes.

“Late.” You supplied.

The girl nodded twice, still silent her mouth still hanging open. You turned away, uncomfortable with her stare, but from the corner of your eye you saw a girl nudge her in the ribs.

You called forward the members of the team one at a time to fight.

First was Donna Troy. She had lots of power, but relied too heavily on her strength.

Next was Tim Drake. His moves were calculated and with quick precision, but he had the same problem that Jason had when he started. He was inept at offensive fighting.

And it went on until it was time for Zatanna, the girl who had stared at you. She shuffled to the center of the ring, her get up was terrible for fighting. Tights, High Heels, and at tuxedo jacket?

She wasn’t as bad as you thought she would be, which wasn’t saying much. She was able to spin kick, and do acrobatic flips, but she wasn’t able to really fight.

When all the sidekicks were done fighting, and Jason was done snickering at their attempts, you clapped you hands together once. You looked at each of them, they were all woefully untrained, and those with special abilities relied too heavily on them.

“You all did okay, but we have a lot of work to do.” You stated. “I’m going to make a schedule for training, and if any of you need just sign up for more.”

Most of the kids groaned, but you gave them a glare which shut them up.

The schedule was posted at the end of the day, most people were only one two to three times a week, but those who needed extra help, like Beast Boy and Zatanna were on the schedule five times.

Training was easy, you had been fighting your entire life, and you picked up new moves easily. You also learned the best ways to avoid injuries. So passing on your knowledge seemed fair.

You came to enjoy your daily spars, you liked fighting with Tim the best. He was quiet and took instructions well, never trying to talk with you unless to ask relevant questions. The same could not be said for the rest of your students. They all wanted to know your history and your life story, usually if you glared at them extra hard the line of questioning for the day would be done.

Zatanna however was different, she seemed quiet when she was with you, her eyes were always wide as she stared at you. When you put your hands on her to correct her posture sometimes she would jump, or flinch. You wondered what you did to this girl, and why she was so afraid of you, especially because you knew she was rather talkative with the rest of her peers.

It was your twelfth training session with Zatanna and her progress was incredibly slow. All of your other students were showing marked improvements, but Zatanna was showing nothing.

At the end of your session you looked her up and down. She was sitting on the bench, exhausted, drinking for a bottle of water, clearly she was working hard, but nothing was clicking for her.

“Zatanna.” You said, she looked up at the sound of your voice, her eyes met yours then turned away quickly. You gracefully chose to ignore that. “Next time we work together wear gym clothes, not… that.”

And for the first time since you met her you saw Zatanna bristle with emotions. Usually around you she was shy and guarded, but suddenly she looked frustrated.

“Why? What’s wrong with my uniform?” She asked defensively.

Uniform, so that’s what she called her get up.

“It’s not good for hand to hand combat, too many moving parts, and high heels.” You repled, leaning down to get a sip of water yourself.

“I don’t understand why I even need to learn this stuff.” Zatanna spoke angrily, her tone was sharp, “I have my magic. It’s all I need.”

“And if your magic fails, if someone takes it away?” You asked coldly, and you saw Zatanna open her mouth, about to mount another defense, but you continued. “What if you’re up against an enemy who is evenly matched in power. You need other skills to survive as a hero.”

You turned around an stormed out of the room, not giving  the girl a chance to respond. But the next time you trained with Zatanna, she was wearing gym clothes, and you smiled.

Zatanna’s progress was still slow, but she was doing better then before. She was still shy, an blushed whenever you gave her slight contact. It was after a particularly rough session that you finally asked.

Normally you wouldn’t pry into your student’s social life, because you didn’t want them to ask about yours, but she was different. She seemed afraid of you, and that was off-putting.

“Do I make you uncomfortable?” You asked as she sipped from her waterbottle.

Zatanna almost choked, her eyes darted to you, then back to her drink, “Of course you make me uncomfortable, I mean your so hot. And all controlling, and you have glistening sweating abs, and your biceps. And oh God, I just said this all out loud.”

You stared at Zatanna shocked, people generally didn’t like you, you were stony and hard to get along with.

Zatanna looked at you, her face was a deep red by now, “I’m sorry.”

“What?” You asked dumbly.

“I made you uncomfortable didn’t I?” Zatanna sighed, “I really need to learn how to filter.”

You sat down next to Zatanna, she was looking down at her hands rather upset. You felt a pang in your chest, you didn’t like seeing her like this. So sad and worried.

“You didn’t make me uncomfortable.” You lied. She did make you uncomfortable, but it wasn’t really because she had feelings for you, it was more because most people made you uncomfortable. You had kept everyone at an arms length before Jason, and it was hard to let anyone in now.

Zatanna looked up with a soft smile, “Really?”

“Really.” You confirmed.

You stood up, readying yourself to pack up your things. But Zatanna said something that shocked you, “Would you go, I mean would you like to go on a date with me?”

You stared at her unsure what to say, you had never been asked out before. Zatanna seemed crestfallen at your look, so you quickly smiled, not liking to see her upset.

“Sure.”

The night of your big date with Jason you were pacing in your apartment. Jason was laughing as you nervously checked your hair and reapplied make-up.

“Just be yourself.” Jason said rather unhelpfully.

“Shut up!” You shot back, making him laugh more.

You had changed your outfit three times before Zatanna knocked on your door. She arrived looking gorgeous, a well tailored suit jacket and slacks, with no shirt beneath. You could see her pale skin, and your heart fluttered at the idea.

“Come on, the restaurant is waiting.” Zatanna said with a large smile.

You smiled nervously, and nodded, following her out to the car. Jason called out behind the two of you, something about not doing anything he would do. You blushed harder.

Zatanna lead you to a glossy and sleek black car, opening the door for you. It was strange that she was so confident on this date and you were so nervous, it was as if you personalities had switched.

The restaurant was really nice, you and Zatanna had a low lit booth in the corner.

You opened your mouth, but unsure what to say you closed it again.

“Are you nervous?” Zatanna asked playfully.

“A little.” Was your honest answer. Zatanna’s smile grew wide at the news. She looked so pretty in the here.

“Wow, I thought you were super alpha female, not scared of anything.” Zatanna smirked, “It’s good to know that I am aloud to be more dominant in this relationship.”

You didn’t really know what Zatanna was talking about, but when she smiled at you everything felt safer. She talked to you the whole night, and you actually enjoyed your time.

As much as you physically protected her, teaching her to fight and all, she seemed to emotionally protect you.

#Zatanna Zatara #zatanna x reader #zatanna zatara x reader #zatanna imagine #Zatanna #Jason Todd #jason todd imagine #Young Justice #young justice reader insert #young justice imagine #DC comics #dc comics imagine #dc comics x reader #dc comic imagine #dc comics reader insert

[jordm]

Heartland 11x09 - Challenges review

“Mongolia… why not?”  - Amy 

Well… I could list a few reasons why but anyways. I digress. Not the point? Or is it? Long story short, this episode brought challenges to all characters; some I welcomed (Georgie, Mitch, Amy and Georgie), some which were kinda cringe but also kinda good (Amy and Mongolia, Ty) and some I appreciated/understood but didn’t really like the outcome (Tim).

I’m going to try to keep this short. Try, being the key word. 

Also please appreciate this photo of Mitch looking at Lyndy. Because I do. 

[EDIT: I tots failed at this short thing, courtesy of my popular dislike for this new somewhat re-used Mongolia storyline]

AMY

Amy still hasn’t told her father about her trip to Mongolia, even though she leaves in a few days. Literally. Luckily, or unluckily, Georgie let it slip in a conversation to her grandfather. Let’s pause here to appreciate Tim preaching wisdom onto his family.

“World’s oldest babysitter” - Tim about Jack babysitting Lyndy

“Is the well being of a horse in Mongolia mean more to you than your daughter?” - Tim

Amy seems to finally realize that maybe, just maybe Jack isn’t the best choice of a babysitter especially considering he has to look after his other grandchildren, so she wisely asks Lou to come home and help babysit. Lou agrees (after all, she does miss Katie and Georgie and y’know should do her motherly duties)… and thank god, because Jack already fell asleep with the baby monitor in his hand in the beginning of the episode.

Later on, Amy insists on going even though it’s revealed later that Ty won’t be there to pick her up, despite Tim and Jack insist it won’t be safe. “It’ll be fine” says Amy, which means everything won’t be, because TV law. Jack says he’ll go with Amy since they don’t want her going on her own, but Tim wants to go because he wants (needs) to spend time with Amy. This i get. They’re protective but also want her to ‘grow her wings’ so the compromise is to let someone accompany her since Ty is apparently too busy to pick her up. And it’s totally fair, if Amy is so dead set on going- which she is. 

SIDENOTE: I kind of hoped to see a Tamy reunion Mongolia airport scene and a car ride with the two of them going to the site and Ty showing Amy the sites. But oh well.

So who is the best to accompany her? To be fair, neither of them going with Amy is great. Jack is objectively old, and Tim is dealing with his tumour issue; perhaps Mitch is honestly the best option or, you know, none of them at all going. And I’m not honestly sure who the best to go with Amy on this trip is… (The answer is neither) BUT all I know is that I don’t really like this Mongolia trip either way. I mean, let’s face it- no one does. Not even the casuals. But the way they’re approaching this, with Tim accompanying her… I don’t hate (but I also don’t love because of this situation is coming up). I’m meh and seeing where it goes.

The one part I did enjoy about her storyline was Amy coaching Georgie on the Devil’s Lake jump. She suggests building the duplicate Devils Lake jump where Ty built her the practise ring all those seasons ago. And then, the memories flood back to Amy, and we see flashbacks from many seasons ago when Ty first build it. And it made me feel was miss those good old days when the storyline was about the simple things/everyday life and everyone was close to home. (But bonus points for incorporating those flashbacks!)

Lastly, let’s also appreciate Tim’s wit about Mongolia, where he wasn’t completely wrong.

“It’s like three inches from Afghanistan” - Tim about Mongolia on a map

TY 

First, we see that Ty is in Mongolia and safe… so far. We all know better than to expect a happy Mongolia storyline no? Ty finally sees Attila and Attila really is sick, but once he gets some fluid in him, he seems to be improving. i enjoyed seeing Ty work as a vet, even if it’s not in Hudson, which hey, can he please do more of. Apparently, Attila has been pretty depressed and sad since he arrived, which in itself is kind of depressed and sad.

One more thing; the Mongolian people really did under-estimate Attila’s condition. It wasn’t just a respiratory illness and if they had an inkling that it was perhaps more serious… maybe they could have arranged treatment faster.

Look, after seeing Attila’s condition, i’m not against Ty going to Mongolia. But..

Can someone tell me why is this a good idea to rush off to help Bata when he knows it’s going to be dangerous? I get their friends, and it showed off his good personality traits of helping and being there for his friends, but he didn’t even think about the resulting consequences or you know, the danger. He was hired for a job to TREAT ATTILA, he was flown over to TREAT ATTILA, not to help his old friend out of a situation. I get that he wants to help his friend but Attila’s health is going to continue to be at risk if something happens to him. Plus he knows his wife is coming, so why put himself in danger? Although this showed off his do-good traits, I just think he should have though this out a little more, especially when him and Bata ran off to help a neighbouring village. 

ALSO how did Ty not know that Mongolia was a dangerous place considering he’d been there already?! Helloooooooo.

We learn that Poachers (yay for continuation!) have been going village to village burning villages down since they reported them to authorities. When Ty hears this he texts and calls Amy not to come- a little too late, but she leaves her phone at home and she doesn’t get the call. 

Frankly, I can’t say i didn’t see that coming.

NEXT EPISODE: We see that Amy and Tim arrive and hear that Ty is ‘missing’ . They then are forced to go onto a ‘search and rescue’ mission. Sigh. Ty can’t catch a break.

GEORGIE

Amy gets word that the Summer games will feature a Devil’s Lake jump, and gets permission from Paula to use her cross country course. They seem to be two peas in a pod now. Kidding.

Anyways, we also learn that Wyatt is in Calgary with his family and him and Georgie aren’t talking, but Amy wisely uses this to take this as an opportunity to focus on training/the Summer Games. Which she maybe should have done before, because you know… career >> guys. 

On the first time she tries, she gets thrown off the horse and into the water. Luckily, Dylan is there to chime in with this line: 

“It’s easier when the horse jumps with you” - Dylan 

Georgie rightfully panics because she’s afraid won’t get the jump down before Amy leaves, which is apparently in a few days. I mean, your coach wants you to learn a new jump in a few days even though she’s leaving in a few days, won’t be at your competition for the first time and she doesn’t want to run into Dylan; AND is dealing with the whole Wyatt situation? Yikes.

BREIF PAUSE TO POINT OUT A SAD POINT: Can I also point out that when Georgie said, “i’ve never not had Amy at a competition before” or something like that, it’s kind of a hit to the stomach for Lou? Her AUNT is always there but her mother has barely attended half of her competitions. Wake up Lou, Amy is more of a guardian/mother to Georgie than you are. 

Anyways, Mitch says that he can build the Devils Lake jump, which leads to a funny line when Mitch realizes that Dylan is the reason why he’s “up to his knees in dirt and why she won’t train at Westfield.” End result is, she ends up acing the jump on the course, and get’s a promise from Dylan that he’ll see her at the summer games.

ABOUT DYLAN: I still don’t ship Dylan and Georgie (although it is much easier to think of shipp-er names for them than Wyatt and Georgie), because I did love G/W together. Right now, i actually think i’m on the “Georgie needs to focus on training” boat and that she also should be really good friends with Dylan because the two of them could push each other (like Ashley and Amy) to be better riders. 

TIM

We learn that he had a second scan, and the shadow is unchanged; Tim is also having the same symptoms. Then there’s that ominous sign as he drives away…

DEAD END.

Anyone else catch that?

Tim this episode is the voice of reason and the only one bringing up what happened last time in Mongolia, which proves to be all too true. We see Tim’s fears in the future after the last scan as he is not helping Jade with her rodeo plans, wants her to enroll in a rodeo school program thing and is talking to his contacts to get her there. He wants to ensure Jade’s future is set up, even if/incase he’s not there and that’s heartbreaking. 

“You don’t know where you’ll be in the fall” - Tim projecting his fears for the future onto Jade

ABOUT CASEY 

Casey and Tim in the care is awkward. Casey is the only one talking and when Tim finally realizes casey isn’t okay, she confesses with Jen gone, it’s the first time she’s had a chance to think about an things/her brother. Casey talks about how hard it was when Hank was sick and says she doesn’t know what she’d do without Tim. This is awkward, and Tim’s face shows it. 

He doesn’t want to burden her with his illness and make her go through it all again and relive the whole Hank saga, especially given her relating her struggles she is going through… so he breaks up with her. He needs space. “It’s not you, its me” And this one time, it’s actually true. 

My opinion is that, well, Tim has good intentions but it honestly isn’t the best decision. He should tell Casey and let her decide if she wants out; once she finds out, she might understand, but she might also resent him even more for not even giving him that option. I do get why he went that route- he really was thinking of Casey and her well being so she doesn’t have to go through it all again, however, this could have been approached in a different way. In fact, him telling her could have led to a stronger relationship and y’know, more support and more love for him. Which he needs.

I mentioned this before, but he wants to go to Mongolia because he wants/needs to spend more time with Amy. In short, I don’t get reasoning but this overall doesn’t sound like a great idea considering his state and Mongolia being dangerous. I mean… at least he told Jack? Jack of whom…. why did he even let him go? I mean, at least let Amy in on the half truth who is travelling with him incase something happen so she has the full story… but hey i’m all for daughter-father bonding.

JACK

Short appreciation segment for Jack, who is already tired and has agreed to also take care of Lyndy (and Katie, even if Lou agreed to come back)

“it’s my wife” - about Lisa, who is in France. Shout out to Jack for letting us all know where Lisa is even though she was really missed in this fall finale.

Lastly, a nice acknowledgement to him and Tim’s relationship and how it has come so far. Guys. Jack is the only one who knows about his illness. This wouldn’t have happened a decade ago. Jack promises not to tell anyone against his own wishes, which i feel may bite him in the back. 

OVERALL

… I liked this episode. Not my favourite by far due to Mongolia, but also not my least favourite. An average episode with a predictable cliffhanger. I enjoyed the Georgie storyline, seeing Mitch (not as a romantic interest) and Amy’s role in all of this, including the flashbacks. While I do think Ty should have thought before running to help Bata and off to the neighbouring village and i wish he wasn’t even there… it wasn’t unexpected given the circumstances and i enjoyed seeing him work as a vet. Plus despite Tim’s questionable choice to accompany Amy and break up with Casey, he had good intentions. So.. can’t fault him for that (okay I can but whatever).

So I guess i’m one foot on the Mongolia storyline train… i won’t ever be completely on it, but as long as this train is moving, I’m moving along with it and hoping they make the best of it given they must do this storyline (just hanging on though).

SONGS IN THIS EPISODE ( @heartlandians)

Nation’s Son - Evan Olson

Stronger than Longing - Kat + James

Shadow in the Road - Sam Weber 

#challenges #heartland #review #11x09

[chameleon-cryptid]

♻️ Rhyan

Rhyan from another universe (it’s going to be ours) or timeline (two time lines here).  Warnings for homophobia, implied drug use, and implied skankery: 

(whoops, this turned out really long and I didn’t proof read it. OH WELL)

_______________

“Oh look.Here he comes. The fag with his flute. I bet you like playing the skin flute too.”

“You know you’re going to hell, Rhyan. God hates fags!”

What did these jerks know about hell. For Rhyan, he was in it already. The halls of his highschool were lined with demons who seemed content on making this his own living hell. There wasn’t a day that went by where he wasn’t taunted, beat, or otherwise humiliated and ridiculed for who he was. He ignored it most of the time, but for some reason, it got to him today. He took off, running, trying to get to the place where he knew he was safe. Where he wasn’t a fag or a fairy. Where he was respected. 

He only stopped when he got to the musical instrument storage room in the music wing. The tears were already there though as he stormed in to the room, full of other students. Concerned voices reached out to him, but he wasn’t hearing them properly. 

“Rhyan? Are you okay?”

“Are those guys fucking with you again?”

“I’m going to go tell Mr. Aston. Those guys should be expelled.”

In the back of his mind, he heard that and shook his head, wiping away tears. “No...no I’m fine.”

He was always fine. Never reported it. He didn’t want to be trouble. His father would argue that kids bully each other and that his youngest son should man up, maybe throw a punch out if someone was bothering him. Rhyan theorised that if his father had been a classmate of his, he’d be one of the ones bullying him. It hurt. Suddenly, though, his vision was full of blonde hair and blue eyes.

“Fuck those guys, Rhyan. Or rather don’t. You’re way too good-looking for them. Want me to shove my snare right up their asshole?” 

Rhyan blushed. Mike was section leader of the percussion section, president of the marching band, and generally just a wonderful person. He was liked by everyone, attractive, smart. Rhyan had a bit of a crush on him, but then ...so did Mike’s girlfriend.

“No..I’m fine, Mike. Really I am.”

“Well...seriously though, fuck those guys. You’re the best musician in this school, best singer. What have those shits ever done. Like...their biggest accomplishment is probably kissing their cousins behind the shed at the family reunion. Fucking backwards, inbred hicks. Forget about them. You’ll have the last laugh someday when you’re famous.” The blonde teenager grinned, patting Rhyan’s forearm a bit harder than Rhyan would’ve liked but he realised the guy didn’t know his own strength.

Rhyan hoped MIke was right. Maybe one day. If he practised really hard. 

*********

Rhyan lounged in his hotel suite on a couch, eyes closed, shirtless, slightly drunk, amidst the chatter and noise of groupies and fans, makeup artists, roadies, PAs, lackeys, and techies. He’d just finished another sold out show and was still basking in the glow of the applause. He was vaguely aware that someone beautiful had slithered up beside him and was leaning provocatively toward him. Opening his eyes, his vision is met with a gorgeous young man, dark hair, pale eyes, tanned skin. Rhyan couldn’t help but smirk.

“Well, hello there.” He says to the unfamiliar face. Ah, the joy of groupies.

He was just about to get to know this particular person a little better when one of the members of security walked up. “Sorry, Mr. Charm. Coupla guys out here say they know you from marching band and highschool. Asked if they could come say hello.”

Rhyan reluctantly extracted his tongue from the groupie’s mouth and leaned back sighing. He was quiet for a moment, a little peeved at being interrupted. But if they were friends from marching band, he should see them. After all, they were his only comfort growing up. He nods finally. 

“Okay, show them in.” he said and turned back to look at the man beside him for a brief moment while the security guard went off to fetch the guys. “I’ll talk to you again in a couple minutes. You know, I always stay in this hotel when I tour here. The bathrooms have incredibly large tubs.”

The groupie grinned. He got the hint, standing and heading off toward the bathroom, throwing a coy look over his shoulder. Rhyan grinned watching him but then got distracted by the sight of his backup guitarist accidentally dumping a bunch of cocaine on the floor. 

“For fuck’s sake, Joe, if you can’t even manage to get the coke up your nose, maybe it’s time to call it a night.” He complained, though he was ignored except for being flipped off. He laughed a little bit as security showed up with his supposed former friends.

Rhyan froze. These weren’t friends from marching band. They were his bullies. The guys who made his four years of highschool a living hell. He stared up at these men, and suddenly he was fifteen again, running through the halls, crying his eyes out.

“Rhyan...hey. Do you...do you remember us? We went to highschool together.” One of them said.

“We really love your latest album. I mean, everyone knew in highschool you were gonna be big. Didn’t you win Most Musical for our graduating class?”

“Oh yeah, he didn’t didn’t he? Remember you sang the national anthem for the football games. You remember us, right. Chad and Tim. God, this is a fucking awesome party.” The first prattled on.

Rhyan was motionless, staring at the two as they tried to get Rhyan to acknowledge that he knew them. He dug his fingernails into his knees and clenched his jaw. How dare they. How dare they come and encroach on his territory. Those guys who used to make a big deal about even sitting in a seat he used for fear of ‘getting AIDS from the homo’. Rhyan was livid. But he was a performer. So he smiled. 

“Of course I remember you two. What sort of business are you in now?” He asked congenially.

“Oh, Chad here works in construction. Excavator operator and I got a job Benton Foundary.” Tim said. 

Rhyan nodded. “You guys married? Got any kids.”

Chad nods, smiling sheepishly. “Two kids. Not married anymore, but...well, single life eh!” he says gesturing around to the party.

Rhyan laughed a little. “Ah, yeah, it’s a good life.”

Tim nods enthusiastically eyeing a groupie in a lewdly appraising manner. “Yeah, single life.” He was wearing a wedding ring. 

Rhyan gave them a bit of a Look. Sure Rhyan was promiscuous, but he was at least honest about it. 

“It really is a good life. A great life.” Rhyan continued. “My life, it is fucking fantastic.” His voice was raising a bit, carrying through the room as more and more people at the party listened. People always listened to him. You didn’t get to be lead singer of an incredibly successful rock band if people didn’t want to listen to you.

“Amazing, life. I’ve got three houses, you know? One in California, one in London, and one down in the Caribbean. I’ve got ten cars. Though cars have never really been my thing. I like the motorbikes better. My accountant keeps telling me to stop buying them..but...” he shrugs, standing. “my willpower for something sporty and fast is non-existent...”

“I’ve stayed in the fanciest hotels, eaten at the best restaurants, and gone to the most exclusive clubs on earth. Met celebrities, royalty, politicians. And at one point...” He steps forward then, gesturing with his hands as the two men watch him frowning, only now realising that Rhyan’s making a point. “...at one point, I looked around at my lavish lifestyle and said...what am I doing with myself. All this wealth and I’m not giving back. So I started donating to charities. Lending my name, my voice, my image to charities that help combat bullying toward gay, lesbian, transgender teenagers. To find them support. Did you buy my album? Attend any of my shows? Some of those proceeds went toward that charity. So thanks guys. Not only did you inspire my charitable work, but you contributed to it, too.” he was nearly shouting now.

The room was a bit quiet then. Most of the partiers had no clue what was going on and why Rhyan was ranting at them. But from the back of the suite, a voice rang out. 

“WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?!” The percussionist from Rhyan’s band cried out. In a moment, Mike was at Rhyan’s side, pointing at the two men. “Fuck those guys, Rhyan! They made your life fucking hell in highschool. Fuck them.”

Chad recognised the man, eyes widening. “Mike. Hey..come on buddy. We were kids. Boys will be boys, eh?”

MIke threw out a punch. A hard one. Right at Chad’s face. The man crumpled to the ground holding his nose. Rhyan’s eyes widenend and he covered his mouth with his hand, shocked at the splatter of blood that came out of the punch. 

“Miserable fucks” Mike said as Chad cradled his face and Tim just looked shocked. “Get these assholes out of here.” Mike said to the security guard who radioed for assistance before dragging the two out. 

Rhyan was still stunned as Mike shook out his bruised hand, frowning a bit and muttering something about suing if he’s broken it over that asshole’s nose.

“Mike..they’re gonna go to the press. You’ll get arrested for assault!” he said in a panicked voice.

“Please, battery at the most.” He gave a horned symbol with his fingers ironically. “Rock star life, yeah?” He said then ambled back across the room to his wife who was most definitely looking a little unimpressed muttering about how security could have taken care of the guys. 

Rhyan took a deep breath. He was definitely glad he wasn’t completely sober, otherwise he might’ve been freaking out now, on the phone to his publicist, making sure she could fix it. 

“Rhyan, are you coming? I ..met a friend on the way to the bathroom and we thought you were coming to join us.” The dark haired groupie from earlier called out from the bathroom door while a blonde one poked his head out too. “Look, I know you’re a rockstar and all and used to people doing whatever you say, but we’re gonna start without you if you don’t hurry up.” The blonde said with a challenging little smirk. Fiesty. Rhyan liked it. 

Rhyan smiled a little. “Sorry fellas.” he said and made his way over to bathroom, but not before looking over to Mike who was looked like he was being berated by his wife. He caught his best friend’s eyes and smiled his thanks to him. Mike in return nodded then gave the horned finger symbol again, mouthing ‘rock star life’ back at him. 

Rhyan grinned and chuckled. He loved his life, and in the end, Mike was right. He had had the last laugh.

[fionaharnett]

By Danielle Aumord Saturday 17 Aug 2019 10:30 am Two years on from the Grenfell Tower fire, survivors and North Kensington residents say they’re still waiting for adequate mental health support. The Central North West London (CNWL) NHS trust has been providing a Grenfell specific mental health support service in the aftermath of the tragedy but after a local campaigner for the victims of the fire killed herself and other Grenfell survivors say they have slipped through the net, community members are questioning how their recovery ought to be handled. Amanda Beckles, 51, a campaigner who launched the Grenfell Community Monitoring Group to scrutinise Kensington and Chelsea Council’s Grenfell recovery program, was found dead in her bedroom after police were called to her flat on 13 December last year. She lived near Grenfell Tower, on St. Ann’s Road, and left a note saying that the disaster had wrecked her life. Amanda previously had a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and was re-diagnosed after the fire. She had worked as a community consultant and found herself unable to work after witnessing the tragedy. A delayed response to a benefits application also caused her to struggle financially. It was said at an inquest that her financial issues combined with what she had witnessed on the night of the fire pushed her to take her own life. Nabil Chouchair, 44, who lost six family members in the tragedy, has also struggled since the fire but his faith as a practising Muslim has stopped him acting on thoughts of suicide. ‘The thoughts often cross my mind but I don’t do it firstly because of my religion,’ Nabil tells Metro.co.uk, ‘then because of my duty to my remaining family and to fight to get justice for those that we lost in the fire.’ Every night in my dreams, I die Dr. Wilcox, who led the inquest, expressed concerns about the effectiveness of the NHS based mental health support services for Grenfell and questioned what learning had come out of Amanda’s case. She said: ‘I don’t want deckchairs moved around on the Titanic. It is intensely sad, the Grenfell fire has decimated a community and hit the most vulnerable hardest.’ Friends of Amanda feel that her death resulted from the failure of mental health professionals to effectively risk assess her condition. She had received 90 therapy sessions post Grenfell and disclosed suicidal thoughts to her therapist. The police were called a few days after she missed one of her therapy sessions and her body was found with a note saying, ‘the Grenfell Tower fire has affected me badly, seventeen months on I still suffer from acute anxiety. I really don’t know why it has affected me so badly but it isn’t a life worth living.’ Claire Simmons, 46, who lives just a stone’s throw away from Grenfell, witnessed the disaster. ‘Amanda could have been me or anyone I know from this community,’ says Claire. ‘We have all been profoundly affected and I understand that this is not the first suicide amongst the Grenfell affected community. The much-loved local activist, writer and film maker Tim Burke also took his own life last August.’ Joe Delaney, 39, whose home was in the estate where the charred remains of Grenfell still stands, was evacuated after the fire. He now finds it difficult to even look at the Tower: ‘I saw people falling or jumping from the upper floors. It was brutal.’ Joe Delaney, 39, whose home was in the estate where the charred remains of Grenfell still stands (Picture: Danielle Aumord) One survivor says that although he was with an early psychosis mental health team, they closed his case. Paul Menacer, 25, who escaped from a sixth floor flat that he shared with his uncle, still suffers from PTSD. ‘A friend called me just after 1am and urged me to get out. My Uncle was in Algeria at time,’ he tells us. ‘To be honest if he had have been here, I don’t think that either of us would have survived because he was disabled.’ He says that he wasn’t able to keep all his therapy appointments because of the trauma he was suffering and that when his Uncle passed away last December he didn’t receive any support from NHS mental health support services for five and a half months: ‘I had good days and bad days but there was no safety net.’ As Paul reflects on the nights’ events, he looks visibly shaken. He tells us: ‘I went down from my flat and knocked on doors on the lower floors but often I think: why didn’t I go up into the Tower to higher floors to try to get more people out?’ Paul Menacer, 25, who escaped from a sixth floor flat that he shared with his uncle, still suffers from PTSD (Picture: Danielle Aumord) Mahad Egal, 32, who escaped the fire, says that there has been a rise in poor mental health in the local community overall since the fire, not just with direct survivors. Figures from the NHS affirm this. The numbers of mental health admissions in Kensington and Chelsea have consistently risen since the tragedy – 360 were admitted in 2016/17, 354 in 2017/18 and 391 in 2018/19. Mahad, who lived on the fourth floor with his partner and two children, explains that he’s still suffering flashbacks and nightmares. ‘Every night in my dreams, I die,’ he says. ‘I’ve expressed how I’m feeling to my therapist. I’m finding these sessions somewhat helpful because I can say things that I don’t normally get to say elsewhere.’ NHS England have allocated £50m of extra funding to provide additional physical and mental health services needed by those affected by the fire for another five years. A spokesperson says that this is intended to cover ‘physical health checks; drug and alcohol dependency; ongoing screening and treatment for mental health trauma. Additionally separately funded well being services are commissioned by the local authority too.’ However Nour-eddine Aboudihaj, the founder of Grenfell Trust, a charitable organisation that supports survivors and bereaved family members is now demanding a ‘complete review’ of the mental health support services provided by CNWL since the fire. Nour-eddine says: ‘We have had feedback from many people who have been failed and didn’t get the support they needed. It’s been the worst crisis management of vulnerable people, both survivors and bereaved have felt that the mental health support they received has made their case worse rather than better.’

#5IMAG001W #beyondtheframe

[booksbroadwaybbc]

Lets Transform Ourselves Day 31 "Hard work, pays off" (pics on /r/dailyprogression) via /r/selfimprovement

Lets Transform Ourselves Day 31 "Hard work, pays off" (pics on /r/dailyprogression)

Background information:

I'm a 20 year old Middle-eastern guy who's very figgity, impulsive and really only thinks about the short term benefits of everything. I used to be addicted to Gaming, but ever since i became 18 years old i decided to leave that part of me behind. I live in a lower-class home, we live off of welfare and I've had the fortune of being born with an above average-IQ which has led to me being able to go to university with a loan.

Last year 2017 December 17th I quit university, broke up with my girlfriend (whom i lived with for 4 months), ditched all my junky friends and moved back to my hometown.

So this is what I'll be doing every single day.

Waking up in the morning at 6:30 AM everyday

Meditate for 10 minutes

Attend University Classes

Practise a skill/craft in my case Programming for 2 hours

Go to the gym or on rest days do Sit-ups

Read a book (Currently : None) for 2 Hours

Go cycling for 1 hour

Be hygienic

Eat clean and track the calories that i'm taking

Study for university 2 hours a day

Log of 4th of September current time : 10:21 AM :

What’s going on guys I’m back for a whole new month of self improvement and gainzzzzz

I’ve made some edits to the daily routine list since I’ve started university and that’s going to be changing the whole game.

First of all no more walking for 2 hours, because I’m walking a lot to and at the university that’s equivalent to about 400 calories a day burnt and I also won’t have that much time to walk 2 hours per day. I’ll still be biking everyday since that’s only 1 hour per day and burns about 800 calories(wow).

I also won’t be doing push-ups anymore because I’ll be going to the gym instead where I will train much more heavier and harder than ever before, there’s a gym at my university. I’ll be studying and attending university everyday and this will be on the routine list as well because I can now skip classes without punishment and I do not want to do this. Now lets get into my log of the day.

So I wake up really early at 6 : 30 AM feeling refreshed because the night before I took some pills, these are nootropics and they enhance your brain function and cause you to sleep deeper and better in general (not like sleeping pills). I don’t have much time to do everything I need to do because university starts at 11 AM and I have to leave at around 9 : 30 AM, all prepared at that point. So I start preparing myself, first I clean my room and put everything into place. I pack my bag and change clothes and go downstairs to have my usual breakfast. after I’ve done that I go up again to take a shower and brush those beautiful sexy teeth. Now I’m already to leave and BAM I travel for 1 hour and 30 minutes to get to university LATE.

Luckily enough the lecturer doesn’t mind and I can go with a warning this time. The lecture takes about 2 hours of my time and it’s really boring it’s all about the architecture of computer chips and just components in general it explains how performance is measured and really I don’t want to explain it most of you don't care about this stuff. Once the lecture is over I go to the gym with a friend of mine and I train my biceps and back, I did maximum weight and 4 sets per exercise I did and this will in the long term enhance hypertrophy because you’re putting a lot of pressure on the muscle but not so much that you burn more muscle than the net gain of muscle. After gyming for an hour and resting for another hour I go to my second class and last class which is a laptop lecture where we do our own little thing. We had to simulate a processor and see which kind of architecture was performing the best and see how it all worked and understand it. Made a little quiz at the end to get a grade and I got 9,5 out of 10,5 points which is disappointing because it was quite easy.

At 19:00 PM when I finally got done with the class (worked till I was done), I met a girl at the closed exit door where we decided to walk with each other to the train station. I didn’t get her name or number because I was a little shy, she was about my age (21) and looked really cute and innocent. I liked talking to her but I could see that she didn’t really have an interest in me more than friends. On the way back inside of the train I read my book and finished “4-hour workweek” by Tim Ferris and I also meditated along for 10 minutes to get some peace of mind after working super hard the whole day.

Working hard didn’t stop there. When I got home I had a lot of work to do regarding my e-commerce business and I had to do that till about midnight… I made a fair amount of money but I did feel sort of burned out after handling so many orders and continuously contacting customers. I’m thinking about Outsourcing my Business to someone else and I’ve found exactly the right person, a friend of mine that I met on tinder. I didn’t manage to go bycicling because I was way too tired and if I did go there would be a possibility of me crashing into a car since it was 1 AM. I just went to bed and decided to write the log in the morning (right now).

Guys this is the log of today I hope you enjoyed reading and have faith in me. I hope you make it too and will have a great fucking week <3

Pics on : r/dailyprogression

Submitted September 05, 2018 at 11:36AM by AttackPrince via reddit https://ift.tt/2MMXKO2

#IFTTT #reddit

[apsbicepstraining]

Boarding academy: How studying to be a channel-surf teach in ten weeks – in South africans

A 10 -week surf safari and volunteering platform along South Africas coast culminates in an teachers qualification that could developed you up for life. We assemble the brand-new intake

Its a bright afternoon on Cape Towns Muizenberg beach and Im hastening down the sand in a wetsuit, stopping to leap or star-jump as tutor Nikita roars prescribes. I may want to lie down and sob as I overheat and struggle to keep up, but different groups encouragement gets me through the bootcamp-style exercising before we plod into the brandishes for a two-hour channel-surf lesson.

This is day five of a 10 -week South African surfing adventure with Ticket to Ride, a British busines that runs surf vacations and cliques of all the countries. Im here to sample its longest tour( too run in Morocco ), which offers the chance of preparing as an school at the end and fitness qualify is high on the agenda.

South Africa surfing delineated

Some beings just come for the experience, but most end up doing academic qualifications regardless, says Chris Bond, TTR head of operations. Weve had terminated novices characterize its dazing to realize the mental and physical changes defendants go through in 10 weeks of being in the ocean every day. Plus its a great infinite to realise South Africa.

After two weeks in Cape Town, the 16 -strong group will jaunt east along the coast, the irrigate warming and smothering changing, and coming to an tip northward of Durban two months later. Its a roadway that the companys founders, Linley Lewis and Will Hayler, did independently while backpacking before university, and went on to recreate as a group safarus, pertaining best available local managers and surfer-friendly accommodation.

Besides surfing and training courses, theres abundance of span for researching. Community work with NGOs and goodness is another key part of the timetable, with daytimes dedicated to anything from comprising classrooms to discovering English or scavenging beaches.

Muizenberg beach. with golden sand and long, allaying brandishes.

Giving something back lies at the heart of which is something we do, says Chris.

Muizenberg, with its surfy vibe, golden sandy beach, long, gentle gestures and mountain backdrop is a perfect recognise to embark. Were staying at the oceanfront African Soul Surfer hostel, a bright, enjoyable locality with dormitories and a couple of private arenas. After a tough afternoon in the waves, we kick back on the terrace with a beer, exchanging channel-surf memoranda and playing pool.

Youd perhaps expect such a long expedition to lure children on a chink yah, shall be financed by wealthy mothers. But its a mixed knot, aged between 18 and 30, and some have been doing two jobs for months to save enough to come. Were predominantly Brits, with a sprinkling of Canadians, Dutch women and a guy from Dubai, and of mixed abilities; some ought to have channel-surf for years while others, like me, have scarcely held up on members of the board before. Innumerable are touring post- or pre-uni, but others precisely require a separate from daily life, like Taha from Buckinghamshire, a junior physician who is stepping out of the real world for a little bit. Some are scheming a job change hoping to swap relevant agencies for their own lives by the sea.

Its a shining desegregate of backpacking, volunteering and channel-surf and whats even better is you might get a qualification at the end of it, says Jennifer Snell, 20, from Wiltshire, who compounded an office plaza with driving as a fishmonger in Tesco to raise the money. Theres enough discretion, but everythings to arrange you so you can really focus on surfing.

Jane, on the left, contemplates for the wavings in Muizenberg

The next day were out early on the high seas again. As a novice, I practise popping up on my timber on the sand before taking to the motions. The education is patient and promoting and after numerous neglected strifes, I briefly stand up and wobble towards the beach. “Theres” tattered mansions alerting surfers to look out for sharks and a hilltop watchtower overlooks the duct but in the irrigate I soon forget my panics .( Chris, who has channel-surf here for 23 times, assures me hes plainly “ve ever seen” one and not while channel-surf .) More defendants expire taking selfies( falling off cliffs, being hit by prepares ), or from coconuts falling on their fronts, than in shark assaults, he tells me.

The buzz from catching a wave is amazing and I soon acknowledge the others addiction to surfing.

Staying a week or longer in each of the 7 demises indicates theres time to get out and do touristy situations. We call the penguins at Boulders Beach and hang out at a neighbourhood grocery one evening. Clambering Table Mountain and altering the nightlife are the order of the day more, as well as channel-surf Cape Towns more challenging marks, from Long Beach to Kommetjie.

Jennifer Snell with adolescents from the Billows For Change foundation. Photograph: no recognition

But a big part of the programme is working on community activities in each direction. In Cape Town, its Billows for Change, a footing would like first of all an former TTR employee, Tim Conibear, which gallops HIV awareness and youth leadership curricula in the townships, hiring surfing as a pulpit for education.

We join the girls for a warm-up on the beach before they jump into the ocean to practise their channel-surf insight with the assistance of the TTR group. Factor of the slew is that the children must go to establishment, and attend after-school assignments at development projects centre.

These teens come from wall st., from mob and devastated mansions, says Tim. We help them gain confidence, find a sense of belonging and learn important life the competences and they get a red-hot snack, terribly. There needs to be something red-hot to get them interested and channel-surf has that cool factor.

Our group will be back next day to facilitate colour the shipping containers is available as classrooms.

The beach at Plettenberg Bay. Epitome: Peter Unger/ Getty Images

Sadly, I dont have the indulgence of ten weeks at my dumping, so the next morning I set off ahead of the group with Chris to check out a few of the other targets on the itinerary. Its a beautiful drive to Plettenberg Bay, the next stop, and en route different groups will get the have opportunities to test the worlds highest connection bungee leap, at Tsitsikamma. Plett has a long arc of unspoiled sandy beach and the adaptation, Albergo for Backpackers, is a significant place with an open braai in the evenings.

Further along the coast, Jeffreys Bay is a channel-surf mecca a stop on “the worlds” tour and backdrop to Bruce Browns seminal 1966 surf movie The Endless Summer .( It was also the locate where surf champ Mick Canning formerly got attacked by a shark but we wont dwell on that .) Island Vibe, the hostel relied upon by TTR, sits on a headland overlooking Kitchen Windows, one of J-Bays most well known progress, and I can imagine the levity different groups will have here.

Plettenberg Bayalbergo for backpackers

Etienne Venter, manager of the South African surf team, will be working them hard too. Swim training in neighbourhood reserves, video analysis of channel-surf aptitudes, employs in surf politenes and lifesaving disciplines are all taught along the way. This is a turning point in their move, says Etienne. Theyll certainly start to put into practice and fine tune what theyve learnt so far.

Time will too be were included in township academies here, facilitating with maintenance and belief, as well as with the Supertubes Surfing Foundation, a community-run upkeep programme with a brilliant recycling initiative.

All too soon, the working day for me to run home from Port Elizabeth, sad not to have time to visit the most remote ends on the itinerary, but keenly mindful how just being out into the sea every day for 10 weeks must have a profound change on a person. As they go further around the coast the landscape will change again, the drastic rocky vistum of the Western Cape altering into the more tropical, luxuriant east coast.

Island Vibe hostel, Jeffreys Bay

Chintsa on the Wild Coast north of East London recalls warmer oceans( as the Indian Ocean heats up, wetsuits are cast aside ), drain motions and the chance to visit activity ballparks. Then theyll thought to Coffee Bay in the Transkei, another Africa wholly, with conventional villages and rolling mountains, where adjustment is at the Coffee Shack camp, run by Dave Malherbe, one of the countrys most successful competitive surfers. Durban, South africans channel-surf metropoli and Ballito, 45 minutes to the north, where the lifesaving and instructor exams take place, round off the trip.

Weeks afterwards, back in the UK, I email Jennifer learning about how the rest of the passing became. She prepared and is now schooling with Ticket to Rides Newquay office over the summer, be expected to eventually work for a surfing or ocean management charity.

Catching curves alongside dolphins, the glamour of the Transkei, calling traditional Xosha categories, channel-surf famous Jordy Smiths home break, constituting lifelong sidekicks shes hard-pushed to mention the foreground of the tour. I simply had the time of “peoples lives”, she concludes.

The post Boarding academy: How studying to be a channel-surf teach in ten weeks – in South africans appeared first on apsbicepstraining.com.

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[viralhottopics]

We’re very close. We couldn’t not be: the secret to a friendly divorce

This month sees a spike in couples filing for divorce, many of them vowing to stay friends. But is it really possible or worth the pain?

A few weeks ago, a man came to stay at my house and he and I made so much noise at 1am that we feared we might wake the children. The next morning at breakfast, we had to explain ourselves and apologise.

The man was my ex-husband, and he was telling me an anecdote in the early hours that had us both in fits of laughter. We separated in January 2009, and divorced a year later. He has since remarried, and lives in another city, but often comes to visit our three teenage sons. We have spent several Christmases, Easters and birthdays together.

If liking and being nice to your former partner is the essence of Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martins conscious uncoupling, it could be said that my ex-husband and I are living that dream. In the three years since they announced their much-ridiculed approach to family life and relations post-marriage, the idea of the friendly divorce has become increasingly mainstream. As Helena Bonham Carter said of Tim Burton, her former husband of 13 years, I think well have something very precious still. Actor Kate Beckinsale is so friendly with her ex Michael Sheen (the father of their daughter) that shes often seen hanging out with him and his girlfriend, Sarah Silverman.

And then theres the rise of the divorce selfie, taken outside the courtroom, showing smug ex-marrieds beaming away together in the spirit of a bright future ahead of them (with a caption such as We smile not because its over but because it happened). January traditionally sees a spike in calls to family lawyers from couples wishing to uncouple. The first question for many is: can you really have a happy split?

Divorce coach Carol Sullivan thinks so. She runs Divorce Negotiator, which operates throughout England and Wales. Unlike solicitors who represent the separate parties, Sullivan assists both husband and wife and, to stop the escalation, maintains transparency between them. She claims to save a typical couple 80% of the cost of going to a solicitor, and 50% of their time. So far, she has helped more than 1,000 couples, many of whom apologise to each other and go out for drinks despite their decree nisi.

People are doing divorce differently that is, better, Sullivan says. They are more aware that the only winners are the lawyers, and bitterness and vengeance dont get anybody anywhere.

Of course, most people would say theyd like to divorce well, at least in theory, usually for the sake of any children involved. But, in practice, anger and hurt usually muddy the waters.

I am insufferably smug about what my ex-husband and I have managed to pull off, but I wont pretend it was instant. The parting of the ways was painful beyond anything I had ever experienced, but we managed to sort out our financial affairs and living arrangements ourselves. A lawyer friend kindly did the essential paperwork for both of us. We never went to court, and our whole divorce cost 90. Eight years have since passed, and time has done its cliched but excellent bit in terms of healing. Rancour has been and gone, leaving all the things we liked about each other in the first place: enjoyment of each others company, great communication, affection and respect. Plus all the things we have together accumulated over the years, namely three great boys, an important shared history and the recognition that prolonged bitterness eats away at people and benefits nobody.

Its difficult, but this approach is becoming more common. I have a friend whose husband went off with another woman. After her shock and anger subsided, she had him to stay with his new girlfriend several times, and even took coffee up to them in the morning. (Talk about forgiveness.) It was nice for the kids to see I was accepting of her with him, she tells me. I liked him. I liked her. She says she didnt indulge in any power play, at least not consciously.

The prevailing view is that good relations benefit the children, if you have them. Phyllis Maguire-Harrington, 33, is a carer and nursery manager. She sees many families who arent amicable, which has only compounded her belief that friendly divorce is vital even when she found out, three years into their marriage, that her husband had been unfaithful.

It hurt massively, she says now, but our daughter is my world. Even though I ended the marriage there and then, and never once wavered, I always spoke to him and let him see her. My daughter deserves both parents.

There was no court case. The same lawyer represented them both. It was all their own terms; he just did the paperwork. Her ex-husband has exactly the same parental rights as she does.

The couple, both from Wokingham, met at a bowling alley in their early 20s. Kieran Harrington, 35, remembers that she started dancing and I thought, wow! He found her generous, with a lot of time for others. Phyllis says she is very energetic, while Kieran was very chilled and happy to go along with anything she threw at him. They married in 2008 and separated in 2011, when their daughter was a year old.

To be brutally honest, I cheated on her, Kieran says. Its one of those things I cant explain. It was nothing she ever did or didnt do. When she found out, she went ballistic. Id never seen her like that. I deserved it. I tried to get her back, but eventually knew it was hopeless.

It was complicated, Phyllis says, because in September 2007 he had a brain haemorrhage and that altered him. Kieran says that, although he doesnt remember being tempted before the brain haemorrhage, it is nonetheless too easy an excuse. Either way, he says, the two flings with colleagues were a huge mistake. Initially, he says, there was some nastiness from Phyllis, but then it went away.

For a long time I wanted him to be my Kieran, Phyllis says, but he had changed. After the brain haemorrhage, I became more like a carer. I knew he was no longer fully in control of himself, and a psychologist told us he was never going to change. I had a baby and couldnt live like that any more, the suspicious wife.

The divorce came through in December 2014 and Kieran, a prison custody officer, now lives with his father and sister. He and Phyllis still see each other most days, and go on holiday together. They took Erin, now five, to Disneyland Paris for new year and glamping in Cornwall. Neither has another partner.

I did for a while, Phyllis says, and he and Kieran accepted each other, but he wanted to get married and I didnt. I think Kieran put me off for life, she laughs.

These days, Kieran confides in Phyllis about dates and she gives him advice. He admits hed like to get back together with her, but knows thats never going to happen; he also knows that it could all have been very different had Phyllis not been so forgiving. I could have lost a lot more, he says. As it is, the friendship we have having a laugh, watching movies together, sharing a bottle of wine when the little one is asleep is the best I can hope for, given Id still like to be married to her. Ill be a little bit jealous when shes with someone else, but I messed up, so I havent a leg to stand on. Im grateful Ive got this much and know we will be friends for life.

Phyllis agrees: Were very close. We couldnt not be, after all weve been through. But the divorce was the right decision. Would I get back with him? Never. Hes not the man I fell in love with.

***

Specialist family lawyer Peter Martin has been practising at London firm OGR Stock Denton for 40 years, and has worked with thousands of couples. In his experience, roughly 25-30% of couples are able to be friends afterwards, and its not always to protect the children. In some ways, it is easier for couples without children to stay friends, Martin says. Once the finances are sorted out, they are able to get on with their lives. They can become friends again, because they no longer have any pressures on them.

On the other hand, Martin says, couples without children have less reason to stay in touch. Those with children have to continue to communicate, and they are more likely, because of that, to rebuild a friendship. A forced friendship, because of having children, often develops in time into the real thing. Its the sort of thing I see a lot Im thinking of the first dance of a divorced couple as parents at their childs wedding.

Barry Rutter, 69, an actor, is founder and artistic director of Northern Broadsides, a touring company. He credits his ex-wife, Carol, 65, a professor of Shakespeare and performance studies at the University of Warwick, with their excellent relationship after nearly 20 years of marriage and 20 years of divorce. She credits him with not forcing her and their girls out of their home. You can be vengeful and angry and selfish and do all that stuff, Carol says. All those ugly emotions you can keep up for years, but thats just destructive.

The couple met while Barry was on tour in America in 1976. She, with her Californian chutzpah, came backstage to congratulate me, he says.

He had the tight curls of a Raphael angel and a boxers nose, she says. He was bolshie, challenging: a Yorkshireman. Everything around him was different and new.

She moved to England a year later, and they soon married. Their shared passion meant they always had things to talk about. Briony was born in 1982; their son, Harry, two years later, but he died from cot death aged just 98 days. Barrys support in the aftermath made Carol feel an overwhelming sense that our marriage could survive; how amazing it was that he could love me that much.

When he set up his own company, Barry was working so hard, Carol says, I think he started kind of shifting. Rowan, their younger daughter, was four. Carol had a full-time job at the university and Barry came home wanting shiny faces. There was a gap. It was, Barry says, a build-up of events, which I took to be a diminution between us. And my own restlessness. The cliche: the grass is always greener. The official divorce says adultery, but it is never as simple as that. I didnt fall in love, but I was distracted.

Barry says it was raw. I remember we met in the garden shed and she asked what I wanted, and I said all of my freedom to roam, and yet the home and family. It was a stupid, macho, dumb attitude to have. It was my folly. You make choices, and choices can bite.

How did I come back from that? Carol says. I went to see a divorce person who said dont fight, its not worth it; work it out between you. I was able to keep the man separate from the actor and, little by little, the birth of our three children, the death of our son, those things you shared, count. They represent the real core values of you two as people, as against the accidents of making bad decisions.

Barry says it was entirely Carols leading that set them on the footing they are on today. Its got to be about the future: I remember her saying that. I myself didnt have it in me to come up with anything like that. Its a testament to her. Id hope she is my best friend. Shes kept the name [Rutter]. Ive always been rather pleased about that.

These days, their daughters are both married, and they still see each other at least once a month and speak often. Carol goes to watch her ex-husband perform. She says he is perhaps better at expressing his emotions on stage, but he always made her laugh off it, and always will.

Tara Saglio has been a couples and individual psychotherapist for two decades. She believes that most divorced couples have to experience a period of proper separation before they can actively be friends again. As a generalisation, I think it takes five years for people to settle post-divorce, she says. It helps if both parties have reached a point where they can feel equally content, instead of one being miserable and the other blissfully loved-up with a new partner or even of one being blissfully alone and the other in a less than ideal rebound relationship. The chance of friendship depends on the emotional maturity of both parties. In my experience, Saglio adds, it is usually the couples for whom the passion has dwindled or gone, and who dont feel so betrayed or rejected, who can be friends. Sexual rejection or broken trust can skewer things.

Facebook, Instagram and so on can make it harder for couples to move on. Of course, social media always presents a happy if not idealised picture of everyones lives, Saglio says. It is hard to separate fully while having ones nose rubbed in the exs new life. On the upside, technology can be a force for good, depending on how it is used. It makes continued contact quicker and easier. A text or email is more emotionally distant than a face-to-face or phone conversation. A bit of a barrier can be a good thing.

Resolution is an organisation of family law professionals that promotes nonconfrontational divorce settlements. Nigel Shepherd, its national chair, says that avoiding unnecessary argument demands a shift of perspective: By nonconfrontational, we mean focusing on what is required for the future, as opposed to getting stuck in what happened in the past. A Resolution survey found that 90% of cases settle without a judge.

Current divorce law doesnt exactly help people to remain friendly: unless former couples are prepared to wait for two years once they have separated, they have no option but to cite adultery, unreasonable behaviour or (admittedly rarely) desertion on the paperwork. Resolution believes that a couple should be allowed to divorce simply if they think the marriage has broken down, a so-called no-fault divorce, and are lobbying for change. The current process, which pushes the majority into blame, often against their will, can really put the spanner in the works, Shepherd says.

***

Businesswoman Sarah Bevan never lost sight of the fact that she wanted to retain her friendship with her husband, Tim, despite her deep sadness when their marriage came to an end. We were originally friends, and I wanted very strongly to maintain that for the greater good of our family, she says. We always had a lot of fun and we managed to retain that.

Sarah, who is now single and in her 40s, lives in south London, and is setting up her own company. Tim, 50, the MD of a packaging and design company, lives in Hove. The pair met at work in London and married in 1994. They have three teenage children. The friendship was overriding in the relationship, Tim says. Any other issues were put to one side. Thats what carried us. But then I started to do better in my career, which made me more confident and, when other possibilities presented themselves, I was weak enough to succumb.

It was 2004. He admitted he was having an affair (not his first); they finally parted in 2005 and divorced in 2011. Tim says he walked away with two pictures, a stereo and a pink tea towel.

There were no lawyers, and nothing on paper; money was divided according to their own agreement. The divorce cost 560. Rather than argue in court, he wanted Sarah and the children to have a home and security. He credits their friendship today to his ex-wifes openness and strength, and thinks they have both pulled off something pretty extraordinary. According to Tim, both realise they are not going to be jumping into bed with each other again, but hopes theyll be best friends for life.

Shes currently offering me advice on cholesterol, he laughs. Shes still got my back! It helped that neither of them slagged each other off to the children. The family has a group chat online most days and he visits them every Tuesday for a curry evening.

There were phases of extreme anger and massive hurt, Sarah says, but even though hes certainly a difficult character, I love him and we hug and say we love each other. He remains an important part of her life, all the more so because her parents died recently in tragic circumstances. As Tim says, that focused everyone on whats important.

Despite everything weve put each other through, Tim says, weve come out of it. We will be sitting in our deckchairs in 30 years time with our mint tea, looking at the children, and thinking, Weve done good.

How to divorce well

1. Slow down. Reactive decisions are usually bad ones; if you are feeling hurt, or have just discovered your partner with someone else, dont take any legal action until the red mist has gone.

2. Try to be rational. Going through a separation is highly emotional, but try to put that to one side and sit down with a neutral party with the aim of making sensible decisions. Remember that you loved the other person once.

3. Decide on your priorities. More often than not one of the biggest goals is to move on with your life with your dignity intact. The more amicable the divorce, the quicker it will be over, leaving you to get on with the next chapter of your life. It is also a lot cheaper.

4. Go to a good family lawyer. Find a family specialist committed to working out solutions as amicably as possible and in a way that will preserve your relationship with your spouse.

5. Expect a big change in your lifestyle. Your life is going to change dramatically; being shocked by this can often lead to resentment and breed conflict. Your partners life will be changing, too, and they will have the same problems adjusting as you are. Yes, really.

6. Dont do it the celebrity way. You dont have to fight dirty to get the best result in fact, judges will frown upon it when making their settlement.

7. Dont listen to your friends. Turn to them for emotional support but remember that every marriage is different and every divorce is different. Just because friends think it is a good idea, doesnt mean it is.

8. Be the bigger person. Even if your nearly ex is trying to play dirty, dont rise to the bait. It is easier said than done, but I often hear from people who, years later, regret that they allowed themselves to be brought down to that level.

9. Think about divorce before you get married. What will your situation be if things dont work out? Consider how your partner is likely to behave in those circumstances as well. Think about a prenuptial agreement realism does not have to be anti-romantic.

10. If you have children, be nice for their sake. It is only in the most exceptional circumstances that it is not in the childrens interests for their parents to remain friendly.

Peter Martin, family lawyer, OGR Stock Denton

Read more: http://ift.tt/2jaHCUt

from We’re very close. We couldn’t not be: the secret to a friendly divorce

#We’re very close. We couldn’t not be: the secret to a friendly divorce

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Lets Transform Ourselves Day 28 "The Rebuild" (Pics on /r/dailyprogression) via /r/selfimprovement

Lets Transform Ourselves Day 28 "The Rebuild" (Pics on /r/dailyprogression)

Background information:

I'm a 20 year old Middle-eastern guy who's very figgity, impulsive and really only thinks about the short term benefits of everything. I used to be addicted to Gaming, but ever since i became 18 years old i decided to leave that part of me behind. I live in a lower-class home, we live off of welfare and I've had the fortune of being born with an above average-IQ which has led to me being able to go to university with a loan.

Last year 2017 December 17th I quit university, broke up with my girlfriend (whom i lived with for 4 months), ditched all my junky friends and moved back to my hometown.

So this is what I'll be doing every single day.

Waking up in the morning at 7:30 AM

Meditate for 10 minutes

Practise a skill/craft in my case Programming for 2 hours (not currently bec of holiday)

Walk for 2 hours per day

Do 60 Pushups + 240 Situps And Plank for 1 minute straight

Read a book (Currently : 4-Hour work week) for 2 Hours

Go cycling for 1 hour (not currently bec of holiday)

Be hygienic

Eat clean and track the calories that i'm taking

Log of 1st of September - Current time 11:53 PM :

I wanted to stop wasting time, the way things were going I was heading to the land of laziness. I didn't want to reach that destination so I flipped the tables, right when i woke up till the end of my day I wanted to be productive or at least push the limits of what a post-productiveperiod person can accomplish. The holiday that I took with my family really did me in and i'm seeing the consequences of it now in my weight and also in my habits that i need to completely rebuild. It's going to be heavy but I know I can do it again.

I'd like to see this as Day 1, and just forget about the past logs and past productive cycles. Because it really does feel like day 1 or maybe it's just me thinking that and i'm actually having more progress. Anyway today I woke up very late something that most people would find normal on a sathurday but it was at 11 AM. Waking up late is like drinking alcohol the experience itself is nice but after a while you realise you fucked up. Just think about it if you sleep at 11 PM and you wake up at 11 AM that only gives you 12 hours worth of doing stuff. Now in these 12 hours you might eat for an hour, piss or shit for half an hour and do things with your family for an hour. Leaves you about 9 hours left to be productive, without even counting in the post waking laziness and pre-sleep tiredness. But if you wake up at 7 AM consistently, you'll have a full 13 hours of productivity hours ( Including everything). And this is what I need to start doing, and i'll be doing it anyway since I'm going to university again.

I had breakfast, cleaned myself in the shower and right after I did that I went for the 2 hour walk. I wanted to get as much energy as i could and the best way to do this is by walking, granted walking does take a bit of physical energy away the pro is that your mental energy skyrockets. This is due to hormonal changes when you exercise, primarily caused by the increase of endorfines. (feel good hormone). I really enjoyed the 2-hour walk and i felt a little bit of soreness in my feet when i started but that didn't last the whole trip. Once I got back it was 15:30 PM and I really didn't do anything but eat walking does get you hungry. I ate some noodles and grapes whilst watching Dexter, currently at season 7.

After watching dexter I went over to my family in the living room and also had diner, not much obviously because i had eaten an hour before it. I managed to pack 2600 calories for the day and i'm very disappointed with that number as I really need to lower my caloric intake to see any impact of my diet whatsoever. After diner I changed clothes, and got on my racing bike and raced through the city. I've been listening to the same songs every single freaking time and it's really bugging me, so I just changed up the songs here and there so it'd satisfy my needs. Do you also get that feeling when you listen to your favourite song and it's amazing, but then you listen to it 1 million times and it just becomes absolute shit. yeah that's what bothers me sometimes. I cycled for about 50 minutes, untill my little brother calls me with his iphone and gets me to bike all the way back. I promised him i'd watch an animated series with him and well gotta back up my words I guess.

Before chilling with my little brother I also wanted to get my push-ups and sit-ups done and also meditate. So what I do is go to my parents room, since there is more space there my room has 0 space. I lay down and start doing my push-ups usually i do these near my room in the hall but there was a visitor so that would've been odd. Now I said i would do 75 push-ups rather than 60, I didn't manage to do so I will be doing it next time. 60 push-ups are good enough. Now for the sit-ups I really need to start to add more variety in them, most of my sit-ups consist of upper-abs training and my lowerabs have been lacking. I managed to do both the 60 pushups and 240 situps and after i got that done I did the 1:10 minute plank which also went great !

I showered real quick after the exercises and laid on my new bed and started a meditation session. This was really needed as my head was just empty this time around I wanted to fill it up with thoughts so i could direct myself better. This usually happens to me after drinking a lot, the days after the day i am drunk i will feel less conscientious and just litterly don't even think about my actions. Also called impulsitivity. Whilst meditating the voice that i listen to tells me that i need to think about my goals and aspirations, and it was just great to do this and get a clear picture of where i want to go in the future. after the session it was time to chill with the little boy ! Watched an animated cartoon called "FMA brotherhood" and it was great.

Now it's 11 PM and I haven't read or programmed and man I really need to get some sleep since university is starting soon (3rd of sep). So I just picked one and did that halfway, I read about 20 pages of the book "4-hour work week" by Tim Ferris. I didn't manage to get a lot of information, but most of it was about what happens after you "succeed." When you have a lot of money and time, most people will become clueless for a period of time and ask themselves why they did it in the first place and what the meaning of life is. When those kind of questions are actually best to remain unanswered as they're just blunt stupid questions really. They don't comedown to one thing and you could litterly answer it with everything and there's no right or wrong. That's why sometimes you just have to let things be.

Now Guys as i'm writing this it's midnight and i'm about to get a good night of sleep. Tomorrow is sunday so i'll be a bit easier on myself, it was sort of meant to be my restday but because of all the improductive things i've been experiencing lately (holidays) I'll be as productive as i can be. I hope you're still enjoying these logs and are thrilled about me nailing down my routines again ! You're going to freaking make it, I know it. Laters.

pics on r/dailyprogression

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Submitted September 02, 2018 at 01:16AM by AttackPrince via reddit https://ift.tt/2LO9Lx1

#IFTTT #reddit

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Lets Transform Ourselves Day 24 "Exhaustion" (pics on r/dailyprogression) via /r/selfimprovement

Lets Transform Ourselves Day 24 "Exhaustion" (pics on r/dailyprogression)

Background information:

I'm a 20 year old Middle-eastern guy who's very figgity, impulsive and really only thinks about the short term benefits of everything. I used to be addicted to Gaming, but ever since i became 18 years old i decided to leave that part of me behind. I live in a lower-class home, we live off of welfare and I've had the fortune of being born with an above average-IQ which has led to me being able to go to university with a loan.

Last year 2017 December 17th I quit university, broke up with my girlfriend (whom i lived with for 4 months), ditched all my junky friends and moved back to my hometown.

So this is what I'll be doing every single day.

Waking up in the morning at 7:30 AM

Meditate for 10 minutes

Practise a skill/craft in my case Programming for 2 hours (not currently bec of holiday)

Walk for 2 hours per day

Do 60 Pushups + 240 Situps And Plank for 1 minute straight

Read a book (Currently : 4-Hour work week) for 2 Hours

Go cycling for 1 hour (not currently bec of holiday)

Be hygienic

Eat clean and track the calories that i'm taking

Log of 28th of August 2018 - Current time 00:27AM :

I'm just soo... Exhausted guys. I don't wanna type this out and i really don't feel like staying up for another minute. But... There's a log to be written so lets get into business ! I do have to say that tomorrow is my last day of ze holidays and i'll be taking the airplane back to the netherlands. I'll be home around midnight and from there on things are going to be productive and exciting again ! Hooray ! now for my day....

Today was not special, not in any kind of way at all, it felt like one of those days that you've already done and you're just redoing it. That's how it felt, like you're re-watching an episode of how i met your mother or some other sitcom. Non the less re-watching a day that i've already had didn't feel too bad, it was a really good day. I woke up early once again at around 9 AM. I went upstairs next to the swimming pool had breakfast there while wasps were feasting on my breakfast this time around i actually ate the breakfast that i was given because they also gave me some coffee to drink. (weird logic) After breakfast i brushed my teeth and took a shower, once i got done with those things my family went to the beach and i was left all alone to have some quality time ;)))

And with quality time I mean selling products, talking to customers and having some issues with orders and resolving those issues. A great way to be spending your last days of the holiday ! I mean, shit had to get done though so it had to happen at some point. Once I finished that part of my day which took about 2 hours, I did my push-ups and sit-ups. I did the usual 15x4 push-ups and 40x6 sit-ups with a 1 minute plank. The push-ups are rather easy to do now and I really want to increase the amount of push-ups to around 20 x 4 but i still don't feel ready to do so. The sit-ups went a bit rougher on me because i've been doing those every single day for about a month now and i've been flexing my abs a bit too much in public. Planking was going super easy, I will think about increasing the planking time by 10 seconds. A great workout does me great on a repetitive day like this one.

The workout was finished I was all sweaty and went to the beach where my siblings and mother were waiting for me. Before I left the hotel I put on sun screen to make sure i wouldn't get sun burnt. I also packed my bag with the book that i was going to read at the beach and my headphones in case i wanted to meditate listening to "headspace" an app used for meditation. At the beach I firstly started reading on my bench, because my family wanted to go swimming and someone had to stay to make sure our stuff wouldn't get stolen.

I read a shit ton of pages of the book "4 hour work week" by Tim Ferris, it boggles my mind how an author could pack so much information in such tiny chapters. The lessons I learnt today were rather impactful, they showed me the mistakes that one makes when automatizing their whole production system, like testing products with too much volume or investing too much in the beginning. You always have to see if the product you're making is actually doing well, before you invest your bulk amount of money. I've skipped a lot of pages and i think i actually read about 30 - 40 pages without any of them being skipped through. I did the skipping because the book has lots of links in it referring to useful sites that i didn't really have any interest in. Right now I'm at about half of the book and i'm definitely going to read some of the chapters again once i've read the book completely.

As you'd guess i went swimming and just enjoyed my self with my siblings, casually getting a tan from staying in the sun as i'm diving into salty waters, that's the life man. once we got back from the beach and showered we went out again for diner. We ate traditional albanian food and after that went to a fair, the walking in total would've been able to serve as the 2-hour walk that i would normally take alone so that's really good. the fair that we went to was ghetto-like i didn't like it at all, the attractions were very very dangerous looking and at some point someone almost got into a lifethreatening situation.

When we got back from walking around the city, i just felt really exhausted i didn't feel like doing anything. Nor do i need to do anything, so i put on the headphones and started a meditation session. I noticed that the app i'm using suddenly crashes at the 8 minute mark when i'm in, and that's quite annoying. I figured out what the problem was and it's the meditation pack that is bugged, so i selected a new one for next time and just meditated off the app for the ending 2 minutes. It didn't do too much for me this time around aside from calming my mind and making my stress go away.

As I said before I will be back in my home-country soon, and that'll be amazing. It's going to be me doing crazy productive things and becoming a self-help god. This holiday gave me the energy to be better in the future and to not take things for granted. We're all going to fuckin' make it brah's. Ciao !

pics on r/dailyprogression

Submitted August 29, 2018 at 01:39AM by AttackPrince via reddit https://ift.tt/2PMkagc

#IFTTT #reddit

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Lets Transform Ourselves 3 Weeks Completed ! "Bulky bulk" (Pics on /r/dailyprogression) via /r/selfimprovement

Lets Transform Ourselves 3 Weeks Completed ! "Bulky bulk" (Pics on /r/dailyprogression)

Background information:

I'm a 20 year old Middle-eastern guy who's very figgity, impulsive and really only thinks about the short term benefits of everything. I used to be addicted to Gaming, but ever since i became 18 years old i decided to leave that part of me behind. I live in a lower-class home, we live off of welfare and I've had the fortune of being born with an above average-IQ which has led to me being able to go to university with a loan.

Last year 2017 December 17th I quit university, broke up with my girlfriend (whom i lived with for 4 months), ditched all my junky friends and moved back to my hometown.

So this is what I'll be doing every single day.

Waking up in the morning at 7:30 AM

Meditate for 10 minutes

Practise a skill/craft in my case Programming for 2 hours (not currently bec of holiday)

Walk for 2 hours per day

Do 60 Pushups + 240 Situps And Plank for 1 minute straight

Read a book (Currently : 4-Hour work week) for 2 Hours

Go cycling for 1 hour (not currently bec of holiday)

Be hygienic

Eat clean and track the calories that i'm taking

Log of 25th of August 2018 - Current time 1:00AM :

It's so late right now I don't know why I am doing this to myself but fuck it lets write another log ! Giving up is for losers, therefore I will not quit untill I am a winner. Now before I get into my daily do's and things, I need to inform you guys that I will be attending university this year. this means that from the 30th of august on I will be attending "computer science" at the university of amsterdam. Which will also mean that i will constantly be working on my programming skills on a day to day basis whether I like it or not. i'll be getting homework and will be working on projects as i'm on my transformation journey. So later on i'll be editing the whole structure of my routines and when I'll be doing them so it fits right into my school schedule.

Now the juicy stuff! What did I even do today? Honestly I can't remember a lot of it because I was sleeping for like half of the day. Today we were going to be leaving our apartment in Tirana the capital of Albania and we'd be moving to a hotel nearby the beach in the city Durres. We all slept till about 10 PM so we would be energized for today since we'd be packing up everything and moving it to our next place. Before we packed everything up and moved, I skipped brushing my teeth and I had a terrible breakfast full of sugar and junk. I should've brushed my teeth but i couldn't find my tooth brush since that was already packed, the reason i eat garbage is because there's nothing else in our fridge that looks slightly better than the junk we have(been eating cheese and butter for days). When we started packing everything up I noticed that my Ankle was still hurting, and it's just such a drag. I had difficulties bringing all the luggage we had with us downstairs to put in the taxi that was taking us to our next destination.

Once we got into the taxi and were up and running, i felt sleepy because of the sugar i had taken in. I was half asleep in the front seat next to the taxi-driver who asked me questions every 3 minutes or so. Obviously I did reply, but damn didn't I sound woke at all. At some point the taxi-driver didn't know where to go to, because of his stupidity and we had to stop in the middle of the street to ask the people who lived there where we had to go to. We ended up at the hotel that we had a reservation at and all was good.

The hotel we were at looked quite small and simple, it wasn't high class or low class it's right in the middle. we had a reservation for 4 days but wanted to change it to 1 day and switch to a different hotel due to the fact that it was way too expensive (70 euro's per day). However we already paid the cash for 4 days total and when we asked if we could just pay for one day and receive our money back the receptionist got really angry, started to cuss us out and threw his phone at us. We accepted that we had to stay in this shitty hotel, with tiny rooms for tiny people and we wrote an E-mail complaining about the service to our bookingsite.

When i got to the room at around diner time I fell asleep on the bed and had a terrible nightmare. When I woke up at around 19:30 PM i couldn't remember a thing about the nightmare and just felt like it was morning. my ankle gradually felt better, but i couldn't leave the room since my mom and siblings were out shopping. I waited for around 30 minutes untill they got back and we then all left to have diner. I had eaten around 2800 calories worth of food at that point and going to diner was absolutely overkill, but i thought fuck it it's holidays i'm meant to enjoy my time. So I ate a "big burger" and some bread which upped my daily intake to 3800 fuckin' calories. (ridiculous i know). After diner I thought it'd be a great idea to go to a barber since they're so god damn cheap here in albania. I checked the prices at the nearest barber and it cost about 4 euro's (5$) to cut my hear and shave the beard + do my eyebrows. I was satisfied with the numbers and had decided to stay at this barber to fix me up, in the end i stayed for about one and a half hour just to get my hair and face fixed.. It was worth it though.

It's 22:00 PM and I really haven't done anything productive, I take off my shirt and shorts and start doing my daily push-ups. This time around my ankles can handle the pain and i'm able to do the full 60 push-ups that i usually do. However I felt a bit of pain going through my shoulders or rather tension, which i usually don't feel. I did 15x4 sets and after that I began doing my sit-ups. Per usual it was 40 sit-ups per abs exercise and i switch the exercise every 40 reps. Most of my abs exercises focus on the upper abs which is also the reason why you can see those so well on my progress pictures (maybe after today you won't since i bulked up a lot :( ). The planking went really well after the sit-ups variants, I did 1 minute and it felt like it were 30 seconds. I think the next time I plank i'll be increasing the time by 15 seconds.

Today i walked a little bit more than yesterday but not enough to pat myself on the back at all. I did my meditation session once i got done showering and couldn't really focus on it because of the background noise. So i don't know if i should count that session in. The next couple of meditations sessions are about motivation and being able to formulate what I really want out of life. after this failure of a meditation session, around midnight time I read my book "4 hour work-week" by Tim Ferris. My goal was to read just a couple of pages before I'd sleep and I managed to read about 11 pages. This time around I learnt about skipping information that you don't need and not overloading your brain with useless information. How many times do you read facebook posts or just things in general that will not add any value to your life right now. Think about it, the news, facebook posts and maybe even youtube video's that you watch for entertainment. Those things are sources of information and causes your brain to become unfocused. You don't need that shit in your life and should be cutting it out with a razor sharp blade as if it's a tumor. Not that entertainment is not a good thing, just use it in the right way. as a reward.

Alright this should be my log, I was about to go to bed but then i decided to still write my log because well.. I don't wanna give up. If you want me to keep writing then tell me how much you like these posts. Pics per usual on r/dailyprogression.

​

Submitted August 26, 2018 at 02:47AM by AttackPrince via reddit https://ift.tt/2wb9Kyw

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Lets Transform Ourselves Day 20 "Rebirth" (Pics on /r/dailyprogression) via /r/selfimprovement

Lets Transform Ourselves Day 20 "Rebirth" (Pics on /r/dailyprogression)

Background information:

I'm a 20 year old Middle-eastern guy who's very figgity, impulsive and really only thinks about the short term benefits of everything. I used to be addicted to Gaming, but ever since i became 18 years old i decided to leave that part of me behind. I live in a lower-class home, we live off of welfare and I've had the fortune of being born with an above average-IQ which has led to me being able to go to university with a loan.

Last year 2017 December 17th I quit university, broke up with my girlfriend (whom i lived with for 4 months), ditched all my junky friends and moved back to my hometown.

So this is what I'll be doing every single day.

Waking up in the morning at 7:30 AM

Meditate for 10 minutes

Practise a skill/craft in my case Programming for 2 hours (not currently bec of holiday)

Walk for 2 hours per day

Do 60 Pushups + 240 Situps And Plank for 1 minute straight

Read a book (Currently : 4-Hour work week) for 2 Hours

Go cycling for 1 hour (not currently bec of holiday)

Be hygienic

Eat clean and track the calories that i'm taking

Log of 24th of August 2018 - Current time 00:00AM :

Guess who's back, once again sharing his log? Well... it's me. You know. Gara. Yeah Gara is my name, if you didn't knew this before you do know it now great fact right? Alright lets get this going, today was an absolutely amazing day and you'll know once you start reading the rest. I woke up at a very early time in the morning at about 7 AM, I didn't want to be woken up so quickly but it happened so ... Yeah.. I just went back to sleep and woke up again and this time at around 9 AM which was a good time to wake.

Once I got out of my bed I noticed my ankle that i bruised the day before was still hurting and I wasn't able to walk without feeling a bit of pain. I thought it would be wise to not go out today, my mother and siblings were going to the mountains of Tirana to hike. I wasn't feeling it, so I told them i didn't wanna go because of the suffering I experience when walking, and there's obviously the chance that the bruise will get worse or maybe even break my ankle since they'd walk on a mountain. I got shit for not going but in the end it was okay. So today I didn't walk for 2 hours obviously, it would've really killed my body. The bruise is because of all the walking I did previously, i walked 2 hours a day at a minimum for a month straight even before this transformation. I did notice a strong increase in appetite as well to eat proteïn foods and carbs, maybe it's because of my body wanting to heal the bruised ankle? who knows.

At around 12 PM I took a nap till 4 PM, i needed this because i hadn't slept good the past days due to jet lag and just absolutely ridiculous temperatures. This did me really well and my ankle felt less sore. Oh and I drank some Albanian Vodka before going to sleep, it costs 3 euro's for only half a litre which is incredible. In holland it'd cost you at least 10 euro's for the same amount. It also tasted better and didn't burn as much as dutch migrated Vodka. Now this wasn't the wisest decision ever, but i was very bored because I couldn't do anything really i was placed on my bed and that was it.

When I woke up I decided to hit up my customers, I had some orders pending and I made a shit ton of money about 0,5K worth of sales, which is just incredible I still can't believe that you can make so much money just by putting some effort into E-commerce. At some point around diner time I got really hungry, my family was still out in the mountains and I munched some bread with butter and cheese (7 pieces of bread), also drank shit tons of soft-drinks because the water here tastes like sewer water. It's a bad excuse since it's possible to buy good water in the store, i'm just too lazy to get it.

Yesterday I was really upset about not being able to do my routines and just skipping entire parts of what i want to be. Today I made a come back and did most of the things that I was supposed to do. For starters I tried doing push-ups, I did about 15 before my ankle just gave up and started hurting a lot. So push-ups weren't going to be it today, and I started doing my sit-ups which worked perfectly fine since there's no legs or ankle movement incorporated really. I did the 240 sit-ups with a bit of struggle and after that I also did the difficult part of the whole exercise which is : Planking. It's incredible how planking an exercise so simple looking can be so hard to perform. I did the planking for 1 minute and it has gotten a lot easier over the last few days that I've been doing it.

Surprisingly enough I had a lot of orders coming in on my E-commerce website, so I was busy with that after the exercise. I really wanted to walk outside, do my 2 hour walk but I couldn't do that obviously which sort of got me down... I started a meditation session and did that for 10 minutes. I hadn't done it in ages and it felt like a fresh breath of air. Just cleansing the mind and letting my spirit heal, so I can endure more suffering and stress and overcome anxiety. I've finished my basic meditation pack that comes with headspace and the next pack is called "motivation" so it's definitely going to be different. We'll see what it's all about soon enough :)

Now I also wanted to go reading, and this time I actually did it. at 10 PM when my family was already back I told my brother (10 year old) to pack my bags and luggage and i'd let him go on my laptop for 1 hour. Surprise surprise he actually packed it all neatly and clean, then i let him go on the laptop patted his head and went reading. I went to the living room of our appartment and closed the door to be able to completely focus on my book "4-hour workweek" by Tim Ferris. This time around I managed to read from page 80 to 100, which is a lot better than 0 pages. I'm very proud that I managed to do this despite the many distractions that were around me. This time I learnt about how to improve your habits and efficiency + effectivity. Perfection is not about adding stuff to increase somethings value, but it's all about not being able to reduce things because it's so perfect. I learnt that "elimination" is key to making a habit more powerful and effective. Other than that The book is getting really interesting and the stuff that I'm learning is very applicable in real life which is just great.

Now guys I managed to do almost everything that I wanted to do other than the 2 hour walk, which is a tragedy since my ankle is bruised. I will be able to walk properly again soon, so it won't be a big problem. I hope you guys like to read my posts and if you do please leave behind feedback, it's greatly appreciated :) Ciao !

Pictures per usual are on r/dailyprogression

​

We're all going to fuckin' make it, it's not about having money or being strong and muscular. It's about believing in yourself, having the spirit and not giving up when times are tough, fuck mediocrity you're better than that you have always been better than that... All this time... You just couldn't see it.

Thank you for reading.

Submitted August 25, 2018 at 02:01AM by AttackPrince via reddit https://ift.tt/2o9w2vO

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Lets Transform Ourselves (2 Weeks Completed ! r/dailyprogression for pics) via /r/selfimprovement

Lets Transform Ourselves (2 Weeks Completed ! r/dailyprogression for pics)

Background information:

I'm a 20 year old Middle-eastern guy who's very figgity, impulsive and really only thinks about the short term benefits of everything. I used to be addicted to Gaming, but ever since i became 18 years old i decided to leave that part of me behind. I live in a lower-class home, we live off of welfare and I've had the fortune of being born with an above average-IQ which has led to me being able to go to university with a loan.

Last year 2017 December 17th I quit university, broke up with my girlfriend (whom i lived with for 4 months), ditched all my junky friends and moved back to my hometown.

So this is what I'll be doing every single day.

Waking up in the morning at 7:30 AM

Meditate for 10 minutes

Practise a skill/craft in my case Programming for 2 hours (not currently bec of holiday)

Walk for 2 hours per day

Do 60 Pushups + 240 Situps

Read a book (Currently : 4-Hour work week) for 2 Hours

Go cycling for 1 hour (not currently bec of holiday)

Be hygienic

Eat clean and track the calories that i'm taking

Log of 18th of August 2018 - Current time 00:14AM :

Hello hello, i'm here again delivering you the very sought after log of the day ! or not... Maybe a little? Ah lets just get on with it. Alright so before I go into the details, I'm going on a holiday tomorrow. I've changed things up already and i won't be programming as that will not be part of my holiday, however I will be doing everything else aside from programming and cycling. I really want to ride a bike there on my holiday in Albania but the thing is.. I can't take my bike with me and we don't hire bikes there. Now I've explained that we can get into the juicy stuff.

Today I woke up a little bit later than expected at around 9 AM, I still count it as waking up early since i still am feeling the after effect from the "Lolly." so it passes. Now I get into my morning routine, the casual breakfast, teeth brushing and showering(love it). Once I went on my laptop to check my sales i noticed one of my products were sold and it was a biggie. That made me feel really good, but i was still feeling a little drowsy and decided i'd go for the 2 hour walk.

The past few days I've been playing Pokemon GÓ a lot with my little brother and i'm really getting into it. They've added new Pokemon and you can finally start battling people in the game, and that's what i love about the game. So whilst I was walking I was also catching Pokemon and ... spent a couple of bucks on it like 3 $ to get raids passes and be able to catch legendary Pokemon I ended up catching Regirock ! I know this all sounds nerdy but it's just part of my routine now, so you'll have to suffer :D (jk) On my walk a strange lady also approached me and asked me if i had any money, she was bankrupt and needed some. I did have money but I told her I was in a similar situation, university students aren't further away from bankruptcy (lol). I also noticed that I'm walking faster than when i started the walking habit, i'm putting more distance on so the 2 hours that I walk gradually becomes a greater distance. And yes I did manage to complete the full 2 hours, I used the stopwatch of my new casio watch to be able to track it, super handy.(get it?)

Now for the meditation session... I tried to meditate after the walk but I had to clean my room so that was a bit distracting. Speaking of distraction, because of the hangover I got from "legstacy" I have become a bit more impulsive. I know it right away, because i start being reckless and well litterly let my impulses get the better of me. I was trying to cope with it today but it was just horrible, when i want to read i just get distracted by facebook. Usually it never happens and i just close it right away when i want to focus on something, but today it was different. Now for the meditation, the same thing happens ! I get distracted and stop like at minute 2 and go downstairs to eat. I tried to do it again after the distraction and did manage to finish the meditation session, it helped me with dealing with impulsiveness during the whole day since my mind had become clearer.

After the Meditation session I played a little bit with my little brother, you gotta give your family some love y'know. I told my sister what she could buy for me for my birthday (Aug 21st is my birthday), I recommended her to buy books since I love reading. The specifics : the 48 laws of power by Robert Greene. I've heard a lot of good things about the book and I really would like to have it and place it in my bookcase and never even touch it. Obviously I wouldn't do that, i'd do that after reading it.(lol) So it's about time to have diner, my mom made something special it's a cultural dish you guys don't know "dolma." She knows I love it and she made it for me. After diner i randomly (IMPULSE) decided to go for a walk, i ended up walking for an hour and a half just catching pokemon outside, you gotta catch 'em all y'know.

Alright so enough pokemon, once I gotten done with that I read my book again "the 4-hour workweek" by Tim Ferris. It's just an amazing book that guides you through a way of quitting your job and living the life you'd really like to be living. What Tim does really well is explain how you can live an extravagant Life whilst not even spending more than you'd usually spend. His point that he tries to make is that you should live rich, not be rich. Living rich means that you are enjoying the time that you spend on earth, and not working your ass off to make some papermoney which you can't even spend because you're working constantly. And today I learnt more about how to really set-up goals, and it's helping so much because I can envision my future self better which makes me motivated and strengthens my belief of actually achieving it.

I've done almost everything on the list, i wanted to skip programming because my holiday is gonna start and now way that I am going to "work" whilst i'm on holiday. So the only thing that was really left for me to do is : Riding the bicycle and doing my push-ups and sit-ups. At the time of my bicycle ride, It was dark outside about 10:00 PM and I was going to bike for an hour. I didn't have any lights on both ends of the bike, so quickly grabbed that to prevent myself getting hit by a car or get a fine from the popo. Being assured that i wouldn't be able to get into any issues because of not having any light on my bike I left my home with biking clothes and all. What I've learnt is that even if it's warm outside, when you bike you're going to get it cold especially when you use a racing bike like I do (20 miles / hr). I noticed that because of all the biking I do, I get to know my home-city a lot better. I've been taking a lot of different routes and been to places I've never gotten to if it weren't for this habbit so i'm grateful for that.

My legs were really sore during the bicycle trip and it's probably because I've been doing it the past week every single day, so that's why tomorrow will become my rest day. No exercises, for a whole day and I will also be having a slight "cheat day" when it comes to my diet, just so i can cope better with another week of relatively strict eating. After biking with sore legs, I came back home feeling warm because this time I had a sport jacket on me.(good stuff) I still had to do my push-ups and sit-ups and so i did that, my push-ups were once again 15 per set and sit ups 40 per set. did 4 sets for the push-ups and 6 for the sit-ups since that's a lot easier. I found that my push-ups had gotten easy, so next time i'll be doing 20 push-ups for 3 sets and my sit-ups will remain the same other than that i will increase the time of planking to 1 whole minute (45 seconds before).

Now guys I've written this all for you before I go to bed, I really hope you appreciate this and are also motivated by what I am doing. Remember to take breaks every now and then just to be able to let go of some of that steam you're building up during the productive days. Have a great day !

(pics on /r/Dailyprogression)

Submitted August 19, 2018 at 01:44AM by AttackPrince via reddit https://ift.tt/2MADQEQ

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Boarding academy: How studying to be a channel-surf teach in ten weeks – in South africans

A 10 -week surf safari and volunteering platform along South Africas coast culminates in an teachers qualification that could developed you up for life. We assemble the brand-new intake

Its a bright afternoon on Cape Towns Muizenberg beach and Im hastening down the sand in a wetsuit, stopping to leap or star-jump as tutor Nikita roars prescribes. I may want to lie down and sob as I overheat and struggle to keep up, but different groups encouragement gets me through the bootcamp-style exercising before we plod into the brandishes for a two-hour channel-surf lesson.

This is day five of a 10 -week South African surfing adventure with Ticket to Ride, a British busines that runs surf vacations and cliques of all the countries. Im here to sample its longest tour( too run in Morocco ), which offers the chance of preparing as an school at the end and fitness qualify is high on the agenda.

South Africa surfing delineated

Some beings just come for the experience, but most end up doing academic qualifications regardless, says Chris Bond, TTR head of operations. Weve had terminated novices characterize its dazing to realize the mental and physical changes defendants go through in 10 weeks of being in the ocean every day. Plus its a great infinite to realise South Africa.

After two weeks in Cape Town, the 16 -strong group will jaunt east along the coast, the irrigate warming and smothering changing, and coming to an tip northward of Durban two months later. Its a roadway that the companys founders, Linley Lewis and Will Hayler, did independently while backpacking before university, and went on to recreate as a group safarus, pertaining best available local managers and surfer-friendly accommodation.

Besides surfing and training courses, theres abundance of span for researching. Community work with NGOs and goodness is another key part of the timetable, with daytimes dedicated to anything from comprising classrooms to discovering English or scavenging beaches.

Muizenberg beach. with golden sand and long, allaying brandishes.

Giving something back lies at the heart of which is something we do, says Chris.

Muizenberg, with its surfy vibe, golden sandy beach, long, gentle gestures and mountain backdrop is a perfect recognise to embark. Were staying at the oceanfront African Soul Surfer hostel, a bright, enjoyable locality with dormitories and a couple of private arenas. After a tough afternoon in the waves, we kick back on the terrace with a beer, exchanging channel-surf memoranda and playing pool.

Youd perhaps expect such a long expedition to lure children on a chink yah, shall be financed by wealthy mothers. But its a mixed knot, aged between 18 and 30, and some have been doing two jobs for months to save enough to come. Were predominantly Brits, with a sprinkling of Canadians, Dutch women and a guy from Dubai, and of mixed abilities; some ought to have channel-surf for years while others, like me, have scarcely held up on members of the board before. Innumerable are touring post- or pre-uni, but others precisely require a separate from daily life, like Taha from Buckinghamshire, a junior physician who is stepping out of the real world for a little bit. Some are scheming a job change hoping to swap relevant agencies for their own lives by the sea.

Its a shining desegregate of backpacking, volunteering and channel-surf and whats even better is you might get a qualification at the end of it, says Jennifer Snell, 20, from Wiltshire, who compounded an office plaza with driving as a fishmonger in Tesco to raise the money. Theres enough discretion, but everythings to arrange you so you can really focus on surfing.

Jane, on the left, contemplates for the wavings in Muizenberg

The next day were out early on the high seas again. As a novice, I practise popping up on my timber on the sand before taking to the motions. The education is patient and promoting and after numerous neglected strifes, I briefly stand up and wobble towards the beach. “Theres” tattered mansions alerting surfers to look out for sharks and a hilltop watchtower overlooks the duct but in the irrigate I soon forget my panics .( Chris, who has channel-surf here for 23 times, assures me hes plainly “ve ever seen” one and not while channel-surf .) More defendants expire taking selfies( falling off cliffs, being hit by prepares ), or from coconuts falling on their fronts, than in shark assaults, he tells me.

The buzz from catching a wave is amazing and I soon acknowledge the others addiction to surfing.

Staying a week or longer in each of the 7 demises indicates theres time to get out and do touristy situations. We call the penguins at Boulders Beach and hang out at a neighbourhood grocery one evening. Clambering Table Mountain and altering the nightlife are the order of the day more, as well as channel-surf Cape Towns more challenging marks, from Long Beach to Kommetjie.

Jennifer Snell with adolescents from the Billows For Change foundation. Photograph: no recognition

But a big part of the programme is working on community activities in each direction. In Cape Town, its Billows for Change, a footing would like first of all an former TTR employee, Tim Conibear, which gallops HIV awareness and youth leadership curricula in the townships, hiring surfing as a pulpit for education.

We join the girls for a warm-up on the beach before they jump into the ocean to practise their channel-surf insight with the assistance of the TTR group. Factor of the slew is that the children must go to establishment, and attend after-school assignments at development projects centre.

These teens come from wall st., from mob and devastated mansions, says Tim. We help them gain confidence, find a sense of belonging and learn important life the competences and they get a red-hot snack, terribly. There needs to be something red-hot to get them interested and channel-surf has that cool factor.

Our group will be back next day to facilitate colour the shipping containers is available as classrooms.

The beach at Plettenberg Bay. Epitome: Peter Unger/ Getty Images

Sadly, I dont have the indulgence of ten weeks at my dumping, so the next morning I set off ahead of the group with Chris to check out a few of the other targets on the itinerary. Its a beautiful drive to Plettenberg Bay, the next stop, and en route different groups will get the have opportunities to test the worlds highest connection bungee leap, at Tsitsikamma. Plett has a long arc of unspoiled sandy beach and the adaptation, Albergo for Backpackers, is a significant place with an open braai in the evenings.

Further along the coast, Jeffreys Bay is a channel-surf mecca a stop on “the worlds” tour and backdrop to Bruce Browns seminal 1966 surf movie The Endless Summer .( It was also the locate where surf champ Mick Canning formerly got attacked by a shark but we wont dwell on that .) Island Vibe, the hostel relied upon by TTR, sits on a headland overlooking Kitchen Windows, one of J-Bays most well known progress, and I can imagine the levity different groups will have here.

Plettenberg Bayalbergo for backpackers

Etienne Venter, manager of the South African surf team, will be working them hard too. Swim training in neighbourhood reserves, video analysis of channel-surf aptitudes, employs in surf politenes and lifesaving disciplines are all taught along the way. This is a turning point in their move, says Etienne. Theyll certainly start to put into practice and fine tune what theyve learnt so far.

Time will too be were included in township academies here, facilitating with maintenance and belief, as well as with the Supertubes Surfing Foundation, a community-run upkeep programme with a brilliant recycling initiative.

All too soon, the working day for me to run home from Port Elizabeth, sad not to have time to visit the most remote ends on the itinerary, but keenly mindful how just being out into the sea every day for 10 weeks must have a profound change on a person. As they go further around the coast the landscape will change again, the drastic rocky vistum of the Western Cape altering into the more tropical, luxuriant east coast.

Island Vibe hostel, Jeffreys Bay

Chintsa on the Wild Coast north of East London recalls warmer oceans( as the Indian Ocean heats up, wetsuits are cast aside ), drain motions and the chance to visit activity ballparks. Then theyll thought to Coffee Bay in the Transkei, another Africa wholly, with conventional villages and rolling mountains, where adjustment is at the Coffee Shack camp, run by Dave Malherbe, one of the countrys most successful competitive surfers. Durban, South africans channel-surf metropoli and Ballito, 45 minutes to the north, where the lifesaving and instructor exams take place, round off the trip.

Weeks afterwards, back in the UK, I email Jennifer learning about how the rest of the passing became. She prepared and is now schooling with Ticket to Rides Newquay office over the summer, be expected to eventually work for a surfing or ocean management charity.

Catching curves alongside dolphins, the glamour of the Transkei, calling traditional Xosha categories, channel-surf famous Jordy Smiths home break, constituting lifelong sidekicks shes hard-pushed to mention the foreground of the tour. I simply had the time of “peoples lives”, she concludes.

The post Boarding academy: How studying to be a channel-surf teach in ten weeks – in South africans appeared first on apsbicepstraining.com.

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