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amphtaminedreams · 4 years

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Film Tier Ranking 2019: A Bad Year for Bird Films

Hi to anyone reading,

I’ve finally put it together: my 2019 film tier ranking! I know tier rankings are a bit 6 months ago but seeing British crisps sorted into god, good, mid and shit tier all over Twitter, the format really resonated with me and I was like I MUST USE THIS AT SOME POINT! And I guess since there probably isn’t much of an audience for crisp tier rankings on Tumblr, it makes more sense for me to do it with films instead, especially as doing a 2019 year in film review was something I previously claimed I would do; here’s to 2020 and following through on my proposals.

I think 2019 in general was an okay year for film, with the end of the year definitely outselling the beginning. One thing to bear in mind is that a lot of films that I would’ve been able to see in 2019, I.E Little Women and Parasite, didn’t come out until 2020 in the UK so they won’t make it onto this year’s list. It’s not a snub by any means. I more fall in line with the Elsie Fisher Film Awards school of thought than the Oscars, which have yet again disregarded several incredible performances this year: Florence Pugh in Midsommar, Taron Egerton in Rocketman, Lupita Nyongo in Us, and of course, Greta Gerwig’s direction of Little Women. I’m sure there are many more but those are the first few that come to mind. Oh to be in 2017 when nominations made fractionally more sense.

This list also includes films that weren’t necessarily released this year, but that I just got around to watching; there were a couple of disappointments but also a lot of films I can’t believe it took me this long to finally watch and have definitely made their way into my favourites. My goal for this year is to get through even more of the films on my verrrry long Letterboxd watchlist, and more specifically, watch said films without going on my phone, which is a really bad habit of mine. I find it hard to sit still! Let me live!

I also want to try and put aside my prejudices about visual quality and watch more pre-2000s movies this year; it’s really bad but I never managed to get more than half an hour into Psycho, of all films, solely because I couldn’t deal with the black and white. In 2020, I am going to stop being a whiney Gen Z/cusp millenial-er and give older films the chance they deserve.

So, without further ado, here is my film tier ranking of everything I watched in 2019! If you make it til the end and have any thoughts or disagreements, let me know. I love to hear other’s opinions and get new perspectives on things and am totally open to any criticism. Happy reading:-)

God Tier

Knives Out (Rian Johnson, 2019)

Knives Out. What a film.

I feel like I waited forever to see this at the cinema. They must have started showing trailers for it in, like, August, and I had to wait til mid-November to see it. How are you gonna just dangle a film with Toni Colette and Lakeith Stanfield in my face and then make me wait 3 months? Totally unethical.

But that being said, when it finally came around and I did see it, as much as I love Toni and Lakeith, there was one stand out and it wasn’t either of them: ANA DE ARMAS. I have to admit I’d never heard of her before but she acted the shit out of a role I feel I’d ordinarily find irritating and gimmicky. Daniel Craig, whose character seemed annoying as fuck in the trailer, was actually surprisingly funny.

Stylistically, it was a very cool film and I liked the subtle commentary on class that was running throughout. Also, I thought the ending was very clever. My issue with a lot of whodunnits is that they just pick someone who doesn’t make sense for shock factor *cough, Bobby Beale in Eastenders, cough* but the shocks here were more in the details.

Hustlers (Lorene Scafaria, 2019)

There wasn’t one single moment of Hustlers I didn’t enjoy and it’s quite amazing that there wasn’t one single point in this film about strippers that I felt gratuitously sexualised women. THAT is why you fund female directors. It made the whole thing look like a calculated art form, which I think the unsexy amongst us can all agree that it is. Constance Wu was a fantastic lead, J-Lo was kind of robbed for a supporting actress nom, and Keke Palmer and Lili Reinhart were hilarious too.

Midsommar (Ari Aster, 2019)

Midsommar was such an experience that it took me a good few days afterwards to decide whether I actually liked it. I saw it the day it came out because I loved Hereditary so much and I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. I kind of had an idea of the way it was going to go, we could all kind of guess evil cult was the route that was being taken from the trailer, but I just didn’t realise quite how weird it’d get.

The gore was great, the visuals were stunning and the character arcs were surprising and for that reason, I think this is another game changer for horror from Ari Aster. I didn’t love it like I loved Hereditary but it continues to play on my mind and 7 months later I still can’t resist a good “Things you Missed in Hereditary” or “Hereditary Themes Explained” Youtube video essay. That’s how you know a film fucked with you and that’s the ultimate goal of going into a horror for me. Put that on my headstone after I inevitably get myself into some mortally dangerous conflict because I want to “get fucked with” a little bit.

Booksmart (Olivia Wilde, 2019)

So here’s the thing with Booksmart: I was getting progressively more and more drunk throughout it so I might be a little biased when I say I loved it. That being said, worth revere seems to be a commonly held opinion so I’ll stick to my guns. Plus, movies like this, which just focus on girls living their lives, are few and far between. Why have we had to wait THIS long for the female Superbad?

IDK. But Kaitlyn Dever, Beanie Feldstein and Billie Lourd proved it’s definitely a genre worth investing in so hopefully we see more lighthearted female-led coming of age comedies. One Ladybird per year isn’t enough for me.

The Favourite (Yorgos Lanthimos, 2018)

I included The Favourite in my 50 Films You’ve Got to Watch that I made earlier this year so I don’t have all that much to say about it that I haven’t said already. To summarise, it’s an instant classic: the cinematography, the cast, the lines, it’s all perfection.

Suspiria (Luca Guadagnino, 2018)

I also included Suspiria in my 50 Films You’ve Got to Watch list so sorry if I’m repeating myself, but I adored everything about it. If I had to sum it up in one sentence I’d say divine feminine energy, but inverted. Plus ballet. That dancing scene in the mirrored room will probably never leave my mind (if you’ve watched it, trust me, you’ll know the one I'm talking about), and if there were awards given out for creepy montages in horror, this would win all of them. It still blows my mind that Tilda Swinton played 3 characters in this film; 2 of them are so distinctly different, if anyone put two and two together without prior knowledge of this fact then I’ll blow my own head up too. This is why I got so mad when there was all that discussion around her being the new female Doctor Who and there were people asking who she was. How can you not know who Tilda fucking Swinton is!? She’s a legend!

Sorry, is the wannabe film snob in me showing?

Annihilation (Alex Garland, 2018)

Though I initially watched it because it’s branded as a horror, Annihilation ended up being a surprisingly introspective take on human nature and our self-destructive tendencies. Nothing really went the way I expected it to, even though I was constantly trying to guess that trajectory from beginning to end.

Visually, Annihilation is magnificent. Like, it’s tense, and where exactly the plot is going is shrouded in mystery, but most importantly, it’s super fucking pretty. Sure, the only thing that was mildly horrifying was the *SPOILER* end result of that bear scene but I didn’t mind too much because there was always that edge-of-your-seat possibility something like that would happen again.

Also I realised that Gina Roduriguez is really hot in this! I would just say in general but that video of her saying the n-word kind of took away shot at real world magnetism. WHY SUCH A SHITTY APOLOGY VIDEO!? WHY?!

Assassination Nation (Sam Levinson, 2018)

So I didn’t clock until I was looking up directors that Sam Levinson, Euphoria director, also directed this, and suddenly everything makes sense in the world. They both have that dreamlike, exaggerated feel that perfectly captures the emotional rollercoaster that is being a teenager, only in Assassination Nation obviously the threats are a bit more...tangible. As in its actually other people trying to kill our protagonists this time round, not just angst.

Not gonna lie, it’s not a patch on Euphoria because that show is probably the best thing I watched all year, but I did thoroughly enjoy it, even if I did feel the social commentary, despite how in your face it was, got a bit lost in translation at times. I think it’s the kind of film that, once again, would’ve felt more genuine coming from a female director, however that’s not to take away from how witty, modern, and completely relevant it still is as we move into 2020.

Sorry To Bother You (Boots Riley, 2018)

Right. WHAT THE FUCK!?

Why don’t more people talk about this film? Like it has Tessa Thompson and the world’s best earrings! Lakeith Stanfield getting more than 10 cumulative minutes of screen time! Armie Hammer being that bitch we all knew he was irl (probably)! Scathing critiques of late stage capitalism! It’s insane, in the absolute best way.

SPOILERS AHEAD: I had a mini paragraph written about the last hour of the film and the descent into pure unadulterated chaos, and how it’s like, the internet’s best kept secret, because ordinarily you lot can’t keep your mouths shut about a film or TV’s shows most crucial reveals for more than 5 minutes and THEN...My FBI agent must be feeling real cheeky because THIS tweet pops up on my Twitter timeline.

Fuck this shit, I’m out. Onto the next film. MI5 stop peeping my drafts.

Eighth Grade (Bo Burnham, 2018)

I don’t want to repeat what I said about Eighth Grade in my 50 Films you Should Watch list but Elsie Fisher’s performance in this is why I wish the Oscars also had some kind of rising star award category à la the BAFTAs. Honestly, every 13/14 year old should watch this; it’s a reminder that although feeling like an outsider is by its nature quite isolating, it’s prolific enough that a 29 year old man, 10 years out of “high school”, gets it.

American Animals (Bart Layton, 2018)

My sister and I absolutely loved this film so you can image our disappointment when we turned round to our parents at the end and our enthusiasm wasn’t matched...as in, I’m pretty sure they were both asleep for a lot of it. WHICH I DON’T GET. Because to me, there wasn’t a dull moment. American Animals is what happens when a group of university age boys with the finesse of the American Vandal Turd Burglar try and apply that to an Evil Genius stye heist, part Netflix, talking head abundant documentary, part live-action film. Splicing a stylistic reenactment with interview footage of the men who really attempted to commit the crime elevated what I probably would have put in the Good Tier™ to the God Tier™; seeing the guy Evan Peters is playing alongside Evan Peters playing him, now only the remnants of the arrogance we see in the reenactment left behind, sharply reminds you of the fall from grace these boys deservedly went through. Plus Barry Keoghan from The Killing of a Sacred Deer is in it, proving that unsettlingly stiff is NOT in fact his natural state.

Gerald’s Game (Mike Flanagan, 2017)

I wish there was a shorthand way to say I wrote about this in my 50 Films You Should Watch list so I’m gonna keep it short but here we are! This was great! If The Haunting of Hill House isn’t proof enough, Gerald’s Game (not to take away any credit from Stephen King) is a reminder that Mike Flanagan is the king of subtle, niggling sensation in your stomach that something is about to go very wrong horror. I hear he and Ari Aster have a timeshare situation going on with the crown.

The Ritual (David Bruckner, 2017)

Okay, so this is the film that made me realise we should all be very scared of forests. Nope, all the documentaries into the Aokigahara Forest weren’t enough, apparently. I subjected myself to this too, as if my unfit, cold-blooded, bug-fearing, scared of the dark ass doesn’t already have enough concerns about my survival odds in the great outdoors.

Really though, setting aside, this film maintains the sense of dread throughout and keeps you guessing what’s going on until the very end. Much like The Descent, the group dynamic and characters are realistic enough that it adds to the believability of a scenario I, in principle, know would never happen to the extent that I might keep away from vast, wooded spaces for a while just in case.

Dumbo (Tim Burton, 2019)

If film Twitter came across this post and saw I’d placed Dumbo in a higher tier than If Beale Street Could Talk I can only imagine the outrage. And sure, the latter is probably a much higher quality film. But sometimes a movie, for reasons you can’t quite put your finger on, gets you right in the sweet spot, and Dumbo did that for me. Maybe it was that the CGI elephant reminded me of my cat (I know, leave me alone), maybe I was emotional that day, I don’t know, all I know is that I cried like 5 times and was smiling for the rest of it-to be fair, the exploitation of animals for our entertainment is something that is still very much going on and that was something that was playing on my mind a lot whilst I was watching it. IRL Dumbos should be free too. Dumbo rights.

The VVitch (Robert Eggers, 2016)

This film taught me that there’s nothing wrong with joining a coven of young witches and getting naked and levitating around a fire. And that’s an important life lesson. Plus it gave us the quote “wouldst thou like to live deliciously?”, which is not only so perfectly creepy and simultaneously empowering that I had to get it tattooed but also, created ASMR. I just made that last bit up obviously but Black Philip getting his own ASMR Youtube channel?

The Descent (Neil Marshall, 2006)

For me, much like The Ritual, The Descent is a perfect horror film: it’s got the ghouls but the situation the characters find themselves in is also terrifying by its own merit. The reason The Descent made it onto my 50 Films list and the Ritual didn’t is because, let’s be honest, it’s 2020 and you can get mobile signal in most places. You could probably at least make a 999 call if you got lost in a forest. If you DID get stuck in an underground cave and it collapsed in on itself, you’d be pretty fucked; the idea of it makes me shudder and I will never set foot in an underground tunnel at any point in my life for any amount of money EVER after seeing this. Also, the women in this are great and the creatures in this are genuinely quite terrifying, especially the first time you see them.

Chicago (Rob Marshall, 2003)

Ah, Chicago, the last film on the God Tier™, proving that this list is in no particular order. Because WHAT A FIM. WHY DON’T PEOPLE TALK ABOUT THIS MORE?! Like don’t get me wrong, I know it deservedly won Best Picture in 2003 but I’m talking about right now! I mean, fucking Titanic is still out here getting referenced left, right and centre and yet Chicago gets paid dust! Can you tell I’m mad and that I think Titanic is hugely overrated?! Is that maybe coming across?!

ALL the songs are bops, Catherine Zeta-Jones is hot (I saw someone on Letterboxd say that Catherine Zeta-Jones in this film was their bisexual awakening and honestly, if I hadn’t already known I was a raging bisexual, same, because I FELT things in that All That Jazz opening) and Cell Block Tango is the revenge fantasy anthem I never knew I needed. Smart, tongue in cheek, beautifully shot and makes men look like little bitches which is probably why my dad hated it but what did I expect.

Good Tier

Zombieland: Double Tap (Ruben Fleischer, 2019)

Onto the first film of the good tier, Zombieland: Double Tap definitely exceeded my expectations. I was super worried about the prospect of a sequel as I love the first one so much and assumed it would be crap. Obviously, it doesn’t match up to the original because the original WAS so original, but it was still a fun, easy, witty ride. And I was SO glad they didn’t *SPOILERS AHEAD* kill off Tallahassee at the end because I really thought that was coming and it seemed so predictable and unnecessary. Highlight was the introduction of the lookalikes at Graceland.

Judy (Rupert Goold, 2019)

So, this is the first of two consecutive rants I’m about to go on about Oscar nominations and people’s reactions online. Prepare yourself.

I’ll start with the underlying message: just because you think something else deserves the praise more, doesn’t mean the film/album/*insert whatever artistic medium you wish here* that IS getting the praise is shit.

Like people are angry that Lupita Nyongo wasn’t nominated for best actress for her performance in Us which is COMPLETELY valid as she carried that film on her back. In the same vein, people are also angry that more women of colour haven’t been nominated for best actress. Also valid; I’ve yet to see The Farewell but I’ve heard great things about Akwafina’s performance and I love her so even though I haven’t seen it, I’m gonna take the general consensus that she should’ve been nominated too. The Oscars definitely has a problem with recognising the work of POC. BUT, because of this, people are angry that Renee Zellweger has been nominated for her performance in Judy, saying that it’s typical “Oscar bait”. I agree, it is typical Oscar bait. However, a lot of the people saying this will in the same breath say (or tweet rather) that they haven’t actually SEEN Judy.

How can you possibly say that Renee Zellweger doesn’t deserve any of the praise she’s getting when you haven’t even seen the film? Don’t get me wrong, the film itself is good but not outstanding (hence its place in this tier), but you can see Renee genuinely put her heart and soul into this film; it was powerful, and it was sympathetic but it was also nuanced and subtle where they could’ve just capitalised on all the sensationalised stories of the actions of a woman clearly deeply suffering in her final years and had it be full of shouting and screaming. The Wizard of Oz has always kind of felt like home to me because of the childhood nostalgia factor and so I’ve always been interested in Judy and I think Renee captured her heart and her spirit in a way she would be deeply honoured by. Maybe the film itself doesn’t deserve the acclaim it’s getting but I think Zellweger definitely deserves the nom and I think most people who’ve actually seen it wouldn’t contest that.

Joker (Todd Philipps, 2019)

Okay so second rant. I’m sorry. I have a lot of feelings. Most of them aimed at the annoying tendency of internet users, Film Twitter™ and Letterboxd users I’m looking at you in particular, to be wildly exaggerative.

There just seems to be no nuance online. It’s not just yeah, I didn’t like the film personally and the message could be perceived in a certain way by certain individuals, it’s I HATE THIS FILM AND IT’S DANGEROUS AND THE DIRECTOR FUCKING SUCKS. I noticed this trend when La La Land came out (which if I had watched last year would certainly be in God tier for me). It’s like, if a film initially receives a lot of praise and buzz, there’s almost this wave of compensatory vehement criticism in response that’s usually disproportionate to how controversial the film actually is. People didn’t like that Joker was popular because they didn’t like Joker so suddenly it’s the worst film ever and the possibility of it getting any critical acclaim is wrong. I even saw people berating Todd Philipps for channelling Martin Scorsese as he’s the only person to ever be influenced and take direction from one of the most dominant figures in film of the 20th and 21st century. I mean, what’s wrong with that?! If it was any other director, it’d be called homage. But because everything has to be seen through this malicious lens, its copying.

I think one of the few very valid criticisms about Joker was that it further perpetuates the idea that psychotic people are dangerous, and I can totally see where they’re coming from. At the same time, we have to accept that whilst the majority of people who are psychotic aren’t a danger to anyone apart from themselves, most “dangerous” people don’t just become dangerous because they thought, fuck it, why not? A lot of people in the prison system ARE suffering with some kind of mental illness. The character’s psychosis doesn’t make him dangerous, it’s his underlying resentment and sense of entitlement that grows throughout the film that makes him dangerous, and I think a lot of people seem to miss this point. They say that the way the film ends implies Philipps is justifying the actions of the films protagonist. However, we KNOW the Joker is an unreliable narrator, he’s one of pop culture’s most infamous villains and that being said, both in film and in the real world, few villains see themselves as the villain. Joker is about why HE thinks he’s justified in doing what he does, not why he IS justified in doing what he does because he’s not, and that’s pretty clear from the moment he shoots someone in the head on live TV. Honestly, I think there’s a bit of wilful misinterpretation going on because people don’t like that film

I liked Joker. It was gritty, it was interesting, and sufficiently dark. I didn’t think it was the best film of the year but I understand why it got the praise it did. Obviously, it’s okay that people disagree and DON’T like it. But can we please get a bit more well-acquainted with the middle ground?

It: Chapter Two (Andres Muschietti, 2019)

Okay, essays over. Back to regular scheduled programming of less impassioned reviews. Though I will say I deserved better than my Letterboxd comment of “so you can just fucking roast Pennwyise to death?” getting absolutely 0 traction. One day my grand total of 5 followers, one of which is my sister, will recognise my brilliance (lol).

It’s hard to say how much I really liked this as I think my perspective of how much I did enjoy it is warped by how much I disliked the first one. Child actors really aren’t my thing and the only cast members I warmed to in the first one were Finn Wolfhard and Jack Dylan Grazer whereas the cast here were a lot more likeable, imo. Bill Hader, Jessica Chastain and James Ransone were all great, with the only let down being James Mcavoy; I love him, don’t get me wrong, but I just think he was really miscast in this role.

Another thing I enjoyed a lot more about this instalment was that due to the more episodic/anthology-like/Creepshow-esque structure with each character conquering different monsters from their past individually, the narrative felt like it had a lot more direction, and it didn’t drag as much despite it having a significantly longer runtime. I haven’t read the Stephen King novels and I don’t know much of the pacing issues are down to them so this is me coming at it from a screenwriting angle but it felt as if the climax of the first film just kept going on and on. Every time I thought it had finished there’d be another confrontation between the kids and Pennywise whereas Chapter 2 seemed to have a more definitive third act and I appreciated that.

Rocketman (Dexter Fletcher, 2019)

So, here’s one where I WILL agree with the general online consensus: if Rami Malek got nominated for playing Freddie Mercury last year and Renee got nominated for playing Judy Garland, why the fuck didn’t Taron Egerton get one for playing Elton John? Why didn’t Rocketman itself get a nomination when Judy did? Though I personally preferred Judy because I’m more interested in her story, technically and narratively Rocketman is the better film in my opinion. This was so cleverly edited and sequenced and told with such a brutal honesty on Elton John’s part (it was co-produced by his husband David Furnish and he was heavily involved in everything from the set to the script), that I can only come to the conclusion that the obligatory biopic nomination only comes when the focus of said biopic is no longer with us as a kind of honorary thing. Whilst something like Bohemian Rhapsody was much more of an easy watch (which just goes to show how glossed over Freddie Mercury’s life was in the film), the way the story was told, by the time we got to I’m Still Standing that happy ending felt so earned.

Aladdin (Guy Ritchie, 2019)

You can hate all you want, Prince Ali and Never Had a Friend Like Me are fucking bops and somehow they were even better in this incarnation of the film. I was initially hesitant about Will Smith being cast but rather than trying to impersonate Robin Williams he went his own route and it really worked. He was the highlight of the film. It was undeniably visually stunning too. Madonna’s ex did good.

Us (Jordan Peele, 2019)

Ah, I feel so conflicted when it comes to Us. Like, there were some really strong points and it’s definitely a good standalone horror movie. It’s just you can’t help but compare it to Get Out, and with that unsatisfactory exposition dump ending, I left feeling so disappointed. It seemed to me that Jordan Peele got in a bit over his head here with trying to tie such a vague social metaphor and the actual in-universe plot together, and so ended up leaving both a bit half-baked. He tried to OutPeele himself and for me, it didn’t work.

The doppelgängers were so scary as this ambiguous, vaguely threatening presence that if you are gonna give us a full blown, sit down explanation of why they exist it needs to be really bloody good. And this explanation didn’t make much sense. For example, *SPOILERS AHEAD* I imagine that the tethered just not being able to walk up the escalator into the “real world” was supposed to be some kind of metaphor for social mobility but it’s not fleshed out enough to work. In our world, there are REASONS why the idea of social mobility is flawed. In the film, it’s just like gee, if they chose to just walk up the escalator and go on this murderous rampage now, why couldn't they have decided to do it years ago back before they all lost their fucking minds? Why were they just copying the originals for all those years? HOW did they know what they were doing? See, the metaphor as I understand it is supposed to be that we depend on the oppression of others like us in order to maintain our social status, but not only is this kind of too general a statement to try and use a feature length film to make, I don’t really understand how this dynamic works within the narrative of the film. Technically, there's nothing to stop the tethered and the originals co-existing apart from the tethered deciding not to walk up the fucking escalator. We’re not talking a bourgeoisie-proletariat relationship here. The explanation of it all just being a “government project gone wrong” was too vague seeing as the plot working seemed prior to this to hinge onto something vaguely supernatural and the eventual plan of the doppelgängers seemingly had no purpose or application to the real world like the climax of Get Out did. It just left me feeling kind of like...why? Why did this all happen? When the ending and the twist was that predictable (the old Pretty Little Liars finale style twin switcheroo was blatantly obvious from the mother’s “it’s like she’s a different person” line near the beginning, let’s be real), I was expecting some final revelation that flipped my expectation on its head or at least felt helped things click into place. Instead, it seemed a bit hamfisted and like I was supposed to feel things were deeper and more significant than they actually were.

All that being said, I appreciate that if anyone other than the writer of Get Out had come out with this movie, I probably wouldn’t have these issues. Us was funny, it was fresh, and the concept of doppelgängers is something I’m so glad to see brought back into our modern pop culture database. The people are right, Lupita was incredible in this and it is a travesty that she didn’t get nominated. My sister, who was so creeped out by her vocal performance that she had her fingers in her ears every time Red spoke, still won’t let me attempt an impression of it. And that Fuck the Police sequence? Iconic.

On the Basis of Sex (Mimi Leder, 2019)

I apologise in advance for the shittiest “review” I’ll ever write, but honestly I can’t remember all too much about this film other than it being good. Ruth Bader Ginsburg, I’m sorry. You’re a cool lady.

If Beale Street Could Talk (Barry Jenkins, 2019)

EURGH, THIS WAS SUCH A BEAUTIFUL FIM. The score, the shots, the rawness. I imagine it’s devastatingly real. Like, *SPOILERS AHEAD* you think there’s going to be a happy ending but there’s not. It should be disappointing but it’s an honest choice. And side note: fuck those annoying middle aged white ladies in the seats behind me and my friend who lost their shit and started giggling every time the N-word was used, JFC. I hate living in a Tory stronghold.

Cam (Daniel Goldhaber, 2018)

So, as I said, I’m a fan of the whole doppelgänger thing. It freaks me out. The point in this film where the protagonist is approaching her bedroom door whilst she watches HERSELF livestreaming from inside that same bedroom had my heart in my mouth wondering what she was going to encounter on the other side. And you see, the ending of this was a lot more ambiguous than the ending of Us, so I should’ve had less questions. Whilst I’ve seen other people saying it WAS unsatisfactory and that they felt like we were owed more of an explanation, I liked the simplicity of the answer we got and the wiggle room it leaves for our own interpretation. The way I see it, given that we were told by the fan the protagonist meets with in the motel room that *SPOILERS AHEAD* it was a case of some kind of software copying these women’s likenesses to steal their viewers and thus their profits, is that Cam is a kind of a commentary on the capitalist exploitation of women’s bodies and the demand for (and desensitisation towards) sexually violent content; we don't necessarily need to know who is behind the virtual cloning, which is terrifyingly believable given how realistic some of the deepfakes I’ve seen are, because it doesn’t matter. We're basically told money is the motive and we know the kind of lengths some people will go, and someone DID go to in Cam, to in order to make a shitload of money and that’s as true in real life as it is scary. On the other hand, if you want to believe there’s a more supernatural presence behind the events of the film, there’s enough left to the imagination that you can go down that route too. Some films are better left un-exposition dumped and this is the proof. My one criticism, is that, like many films, it would be even better if directed by a woman; I’ve seen people say that its portrayal of online sex work isn’t entirely accurate and though I can’t say with certainty that women working in this industry weren’t consulted in the first place, I imagine a female director would not only be more likely to listen to their concerns but could translate the confusion and fear that comes with being expected to makes oneself sexually desirable to get ahead in the world but then shamed and used for doing so even more viscerally. A few tweaks and it’d be God Tier.

Colette (Wash Westmoreland, 2019)

The costumes, sets, and Keira were so, so stunning. Also it was just an inspiring, beautiful story. The navigation of womanhood, so called “deviant” sexuality and self-expression against the backdrop of early 20th century Paris with a load of Edwardian era tailoring thrown in, it’s everything I could possibly want and more; 10/10 moodboard content.

The Boy (William Brent Bell, 2016)

I can’t believe this film was made in 2016, and it almost makes me move it down to mid tier based on the fact that a lot of the allowances I made for cheese factor I made on the assumption it came out earlier in the decade. BUT, that being said, I was creeped out for a good portion of this film. Most horrors I watch and I’m probably a bit too chilled (a head comes off or some witchy ass ghost screams into the camera and my only thought is some kind of judgement of the SFX), and yet I felt like watching this behind my hands. I don’t know what it is about dolls and puppets, Chucky was my childhood fear even though I never actually watched the film, but something about the uncanny valley of it all makes me just spend the whole time they’re on screen silently praying they don’t start moving or talking. So in a way, given the resolution of the film *SPOILERS AHEAD*, the premise of The Boy was actually a lot scarier to me than the reveal of what was really going on. Someone hiding in my walls? NBD. That demons are real and that they live inside creepy old dolls? Terrifying. Why does everybody I debate this with disagree!? You can't call the police on a demon! At least with a human being you can stick them with the pointy ending of something! Regardless, I enjoyed the journey and trying to work out how things would end and if there IS anybody secretly living inside my house right now, even if you are a supposedly dead murderous family member (last time I checked I didn’t have any of those so I should be all good), kindly vacate. Thanks.

Oprhan (Jaume Collet-Serra, 2009)

So the fact that this film is based on a real life case makes this all the more terrifying. It was a bit campy and tacky at times but the shot of *SPOILERS AHEAD* Esther taking off her makeup in the mirror and revealing her true age will always be iconic. Plus I love Vera Farmiga, even though I did struggle to see her as anyone other than Norma Bates.

First Reformed (Paul Schrader, 2018)

A hauntingly beautiful film with a lot of room for interpretation. There were so many gorgeous shots and so much subtext, this is proper 10/10 media studies essay material.

The Invitation (Karyn Kusama, 2015)

I would say the concept and implications of this film, which don’t fully hit you til the final shots, are a lot better than the film itself. It feels very realistic though and is definitely tense.

As Above, So Below (John Erick Dowdle, 2014)

I was so stoned when I watched this that a lot of the allegory and Dante’s inferno references went straight over my head, and it just seemed absolutely balls to the wall wild. I couldn’t buy that the characters would just KEEP GOING either when things began to get terrifying, like people in horror films really out here making the most nonsensical decisions and it drives me mad. But anyway, it was definitely entertaining and there’s a lot more to it in terms of plot and mythology than most similar quality horrors and I appreciate that

Climax (Gaspar Noe, 2018)

Climax is an interesting one that I think I’ll have to watch again to judge how much I truly like it. As with Us, I know it’s a good film, but I think my expectations of what it was going to be left me slightly disappointed. See, when I read about the premise I assumed that the horror was going to come from seeing the perspective of the characters on said acid trip and that leaves so much room for any kind of terrifying visuals you want whether that be something based in realism or fucked up creatures of the imagination. Buuuuut, it wasn’t that at all; at no point does Climax take place from the first person perspective of any of the characters. Similar to Darren Aronofsky’s Mother, the horror comes from not being able to do anything but watch as everyone starts losing their minds and the situation gets increasingly more dire. It’s pure stress; the acting is so unnervingly good that you really do feel like you’re watching some unintentionally horrific incident take place. That’s not a bad thing-I like it when films make me feel something intense, whether that emotion be positive or negative. It was just a different viewing experience to the one I had precipitated.

Mid Tier

Nativity (Debbie Isitt, 2009)

I find Mr.Poppy hilarious. Does that make me a child? Probably. I’m not really one for Christmas movies but this one’s alright.

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (André Øvredal, 2019)

I get that it’s based off a book so it’s not exactly like the “monsters” were a secret in the first place, but for those of us who didn’t read the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark books as a kid, my main beef with this film was that they basically revealed all of said monsters in the trailer. Like how It: Chapter 2 spoiled the scene with Beverly in the old lady’s apartment but with EVERY. SINGLE. CREATURE. The only one that wasn’t was the “jangly man” and the only takeaway I have from him is the “jangly in the streets, but is he jangly in the sheets?” Letterboxd comment I read afterwards. Like the creature designs are the selling point of this film and by showing us them all before we’ve even seen it, any anticipation that would’ve built up from their reveal was kind of gone. Plus, it definitely felt like the writers were trying to ride on the hype train of “It” when they wrote this-only they made it even more childish. I mean, I know it was classed as PG-13 in the US which is maybe part of the reason it was so tame but the Woman in Black was a 12 when it was released here and it could be the bias of my 13 year old brain but I remember that being terrifying to watch in the cinema.

Also, I found it weird how *SPOILERS AHEAD* a couple of the main characters died and there didn’t really seem to be any consequences? Idk, maybe that’s because I found them all a bit one dimensional but I’ve seen others make the same criticism so I don’t think so.

Don’t get me wrong, this wasn’t a BAD film. It just wasn’t super good.

Charlie’s Angels (Elizabeth Banks, 2019)

I’ve never seen the 2000s Charlie’s Angels so I really don’t have anything to compare to, but I don’t think this was THAT bad. I was fairly entertained throughout and I enjoyed Naomi Scott and Kristen Stewart’s characters. My main issue was the unnecessary inclusion of Noah Centineo, and that weird ass montage at the beginning of stock video shots of girls just...doing miscellaneous things. Why, Elizabeth Banks, why!?

Toy Story 4 (Josh Cooley, 2019)

In some ways, I see why Toy Story 4 was narratively necessary: co-dependency had been a running theme throughout and we needed to see Woody (I feel stupid saying this considering he’s a fucking toy but allow it) realise that he can exist independently of Andy, and that there’s more to life than pleasing somebody else. The way Toy Story 4 ended felt like a satisfying conclusion to his character arc, and as well as the animation being top tier, Forky was a hilarious addition to the cast. However, I don’t think it carried the emotional weight of the 3rd Toy Story, which I think people had accepted as the last instalment and had used to say goodbye to the franchise, and therefore the sceptic in me thinks that the obvious purpose of this addition was a cash grab. I don’t doubt that a lot of people worked incredibly hard on it-I’m just saying that the propelling force behind the film probably wasn’t “the people need to see Woody’s character growth” and that was quite apparent throughout.

Doctor Sleep (Mike Flanagan, 2019)

There were some really beautiful scenes in Doctor Sleep; the astral projection sequences in particular were magnificent and I loved Rebecca Ferguson as the villain. Stylistically, though I didn’t find out he was the director until I was writing this up, you can definitely tell it’s Mike Flanagan, and like I’ve said, he does horror very tastefully. Unfortunately, I just wasn’t all that interested in the premise and I wasn’t hugely invested in grown up Danny Torrance either. The execution was great and the return to the Overlook was brilliant, of course, but the story just wasn’t for me and nothing much sticks out as being a particularly intriguing plot point.

Mary Queen of Scots (Josie Rourke, 2019)

What to say about Mary Queen of Scots other than...yeah, it was alright. I mean, I really should’ve liked it more than I did, because these specific events were part of the Edexcel A-Level history curriculum (Can I get some Rebellion and Disorder Under the Tudors students representation up in here!?) and I usually love seeing history translated onto screen, plus it centred around Margot Robbie and Saoirse Ronan. It was just very...meh. I feel like there’s so much more complex a story here than was told. Both women were undoubtedly a lot more complicated than this film made them out to be and I think to reduce Mary Queen of Scots to a Mary Sue-ish heroine was a disappointing choice. Plus, if we’re gonna talk historical accuracy (which all the racists came out of their caves to discuss at the time), Mary and Elizabeth never actually met; I’m sure there was a more creative way to explore their dynamic than by forcing an interaction that never actually happened.

Apostle (Gareth Evans, 2018)

There were elements of this film I really liked; the mythology behind the cult, I.E what the townsfolk actually worshipped when you stripped away all the secrecy was pretty interesting. However, I felt it depended too much on atmosphere and not enough on plot, and I didn’t warm to any of the characters.

Searching (Aneesh Chaganty, 2018)

It’s difficult because technically, Searching is obviously an ingenious film. My issue is the way it ended, which was imo, super anti-climatic, and honestly pretty predictable in that it seemed like the writers just went out of their way *SPOILERS AHEAD* to make the culprit the person viewers would’ve ruled out by default for shock value, and then work out WHY that person was the culprit from there. I was expecting something a lot darker to be behind the protagonist’s daughter’s disappearance-irl, these situations usually are-and so maybe it’s just me being a bit of a sadist but I was disappointed by how things resolved themselves.

Deliver Us from Evil (Scott Derrickson, 2014)

So, this isn’t boring. It’s interesting to have a horror navigated through the lens of something as procedural as a police investigation. But ultimately, the acting isn’t great, there’s very few scary moments, and it’s a little cheesy. As horrors go, it’s pretty shallow-it is what it says on the tin.

Dumplin’ (Anne Fletcher, 2018)

I watched this right at the beginning of the year and I can’t remember all too much about it, but I remember not hating it? See, looking at the cast, Odeya Rush and Dove Cameron are both in it which would suggest I’d come away hating MYSELF instead but yeah...I got nothing.

Lights Out (David F.Sandberg, 2016)

The concept is very scary, the execution not so much, and the actual storyline is a little cheesy. I found myself just being like OH MY GOD, IT’S BELLA’S DAD FROM TWILIGHT! And then *SPOILERS AHEAD* getting mad that they did Charlie Swan dirty like that by killing him off in the first 10/15 minutes.

The Goldfinch (John Crowley, 2019)

So I LOVED the book of The Goldfinch. I read it after the Secret History and even though most people seem to prefer the latter, the former hit me right in the sweet spot. The length was almost one of my favourite things about it; I felt by the end that I came to know the character so well he felt like someone I knew in real life. When I heard Ansel Elgort was cast as Theo, I was really happy; I’m not necessarily a huge fan of him as an actor, I've only ever seen him in shitty teen-y dramas which I forced myself to like at the time E.G. The Fault in Our Stars and Divergent, but he looks kind of exactly how I pictured Theo looking. Almost like an Evanna Lynch as Luna Lovegood situation. And then honestly, the actual film came around, and I found myself much preferring the young Theo sections. I get that Theo is quite a muted character and I hate to properly slate anyone’s performance, but Ansel as him felt a bit flat. The casting in general was pretty whack; I love Nicole Kidman but she didn’t feel right as Mrs.Barbour and it seemed that they added a lot to her character to the detriment of Hobie’s character who was a much bigger part of Theo’s life in the book. Also, can we talk about Finn Wolfhard as Boris? I’m sorry, but that accent was godawful. Really bad. Boris’ accent was always supposed to be kind of ambiguous but this was just butchered Russian. Another gripe that my friend and I, who also read the book, had with the Vegas section of the film (which was otherwise probably the best part) was that they never properly explored the complexity of Boris and Theo’s relationship. Obviously I’m not saying that I want 2 minors to shoot a sex scene but it could have been referenced when they reunite as adults because the kiss on the head when they part in Vegas seemed misleadingly platonic. It was heavily implied in the book that there was some kind of love that went beyond friendship between the two and I didn’t get that in the film at all.

Ultimately, when you try and adapt a book as long as the Goldfinch, you’re always going to have some pacing issues and people complaining that things were left out or that X or Y character didn’t have enough screen time. But in ways, I think the fault here was trying to stay TOO faithful in the limited time available. They definitely could have focussed less on certain relationships and more on others, and when it comes down to it, I think we lost a lot of the grittiness of the original book for the sake of pretty visuals.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (Quentin Tarantino, 2019)

Don’t get me wrong, this would 100% be in shit tier if it wasn’t for the last hour or so of the film and all the Manson lore which is so disappointing because I love Tarantino films and I love that era. As for the first couple of hours, I loved the vibe and I love Margot Robbie, and I think it was very respectful towards the Tate family (if anything radiated through the screen more than anything else it was Sharon Tate’s sweetness), but I just wasn’t that invested in Leo or Brad’s characters-it all just felt a bit pointless. I really like Brad Pitt and even that couldn’t really save it for me. Maybe if you took away the remaining 2 hours and 20 minutes of Leo DiCaprio making vague allusions to his own career to a girl only slightly younger than the combined age of all girlfriends past I’d enjoy it more but then I don’t think there’d be much footage left. I guess we should just be grateful that Tarantino managed to refrain from unnecessarily sprinkling the N-word into every other line of his script this time, right?

Also.

SO. MANY. FEET.

But then again, this did result in Brad publicly mocking Tarantino’s foot fetish during his speech at the SAG awards so...I’ll allow it. Sometimes kink shaming is okay. Especially when it’s this guy:

Isn’t it Romantic (Todd Strauss-Schulson, 2019)

I guess as romantic comedies go it wasn’t AWFUL because it was self-aware but still just not my cup of tea and it didn’t really make me laugh. Plus, I feel like it did just follow the plot of a conventional rom-com in the end so...what was it all for, you know?

Green Room (Jeremy Saulnier, 2016)

I think my disappointment with this film was a case of too high expectations. It wasn’t as gory as I hoped, in fact, there was very little on screen gore at all. I was just expecting something very messed up and I didn’t get that. But then again we did get Maeby from Arrested Development singing a fuck Nazis song so I guess that was a nice surprise?

Shit Tier

Birdbox (Susanne Bier, 2018)

First the disappointment of the Goldfinch, and now Birdbox (although they were chronologically the other way round but for the sake of this review, let’s just ignore that). It really is a bad year for bird films.

It’s weird because when this first came out I remember everyone hyping it up and making memes about it and stuff and then I actually watched it and dear god, it was boring. Honestly, who paid you lot to pretend you cared enough about it enough to make content? And where can I get in on this action?

I mean it didn’t start off terribly but then they killed off SARAH FUCKING PAULSON and somehow managed to make SANDRA FUCKING BULLOCK unlikeable. How does one do that? The mind baffles.

Pet Sematary (Kevin Kolsch & Dennis Widmyer, 2019)

The kid acting was bad, the leads were meh and there wasn’t one creepy moment. This should be SO MUCH MORE hard hitting than it actually was given the subject matter and it just fell completely flat. I will say, though, *SPOILERS AHEAD* that the ending was appropriately doom and gloom and even though I’ve seen lots of others say they hate it it was probably the only thing I actually liked.

The Lion King (Jon Favreau, 2019)

Seth Rogen and Billie Eichner were the only good things about this which is sad because I fucking love Donald Glover and I was so excited when he was cast as Simba. Like, it was pretty but empty and unnecessary and I’m not one of these people who think CGI remakes always have to be this way-I loved Dumbo and I liked the live-action Jungle Book too! I just think the people who made this cared too much about good CGI and realism and less about heart. There was no personality whatsoever and it’s such a waste when you think about the fact that they had Donald and Beyonce on board.

Red Sparrow (Francis Lawrence, 2018)

Eurgh, I hated this. I think Jennifer Lawrence is stunning and I usually love her films but every shot of her in this felt so male-gaze oriented, even the ones which were sexually violent, which I found to be completely unnecessary in the first place. At times it felt almost torture-porn-y which was not what I expected at all seeing as the marketing made it seem like some kind of female empowerment movie.

It Comes at Night (Trey Edward Shults, 2017)

I literally can’t remember fucking anything from this film. Clearly there is a very, very fine line between atmospheric and boring.

Warm Bodies (Jonathan Levine, 2013)

Maybe it’s because I watched this about 6 years too late and the whole human-girl-falls-in-love-with-supernatural-creature hype train has long since left the station but I couldn’t even finish it. Cutesy necrophilia ain’t for me, sorry Nicholas Hoult. Still love ya. You’ll always be Tony Stonem to me xoxo

Million Dollar Baby (Clint Eastwood, 2005)

I’m pretty sure this movie won a lot of awards so I’m sure this is a very unpopular opinion but the way this film ended was so...depressing. SO depressing. Did it have to be THAT depressing? The Always Sunny in Philadelphia episode outsold.

This is the range Oscar winning actress Hilary Swank wishes she had.

Would You Rather (David Guy Levy, 2013)

Started off well but became cheesy and predictable as it went on. The acting wasn’t great either plus there was another unnecessary attempted rape scene here too.

Christmas with the Kranks (Joe Roth, 2004)

So I watched this movie in the run up to Christmas because my best friend and her mum were referencing it like it was this cult classic (which I guess for some reason it is?) and I’m sorry to her and her mum but what the hell is this shit?! It’s not even so bad it’s good. It’s just bad.

The plot, the characters, EVERYTHING, it’s ridiculous on every level. I wasn’t into it enough to suspend my disbelief that anyone’s neighbours would actually care THAT much that they weren’t celebrating Christmas. Go on your damn cruise, take me with you whilst you're at it, ease my seasonal depression! I wouldn’t mind so much if it was funny or if the protagonists were likeable but it wasn’t and they’re not. Nobody’s actions made any sense. It didn’t put me in the Christmas spirit at all it just made me angry that Jamie Lee Curtis’ agent made her do this shit. She’s a scream queen goddess and she deserves better.

ANYWAY.

I’m now realising that I should have started on shit tier and worked my way up to god tier because now this post has ended on the rather sour note of me getting worked up over Christmas with the Kranks, lol. As always, these are just my opinions and I love to hear other people’s; when it comes to something like this, it’s all a matter of preference and there really isn’t a right or wrong answer, so I’m open to discussion!

With the Oscars less than a week away now I rushed a little to get this out on time, so apologies in advance if anything doesn’t make any sense or there’s any typos, I will look back over it at some point over the next couple of days to check.

But if you read to the end thank you! And stay tuned for my overview of Paris Haute Couture Week S/S 2020 if that’s something you’re interested in as that will most likely be next post!

Lauren x

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avengerscompound · 5 years

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The Grind House - Chapter 8

The Grind House: A Bucky Barnes Fanfic

Series Masterlist PREVIOUS //

Buy me a ☕ Character Pairing: Bucky Barnes x F!Reader

Word Count: 2166

Rating: E

Square filled: @star-spangled-bingo - Playful Relationship

Warnings: Smut (F/M, oral sex, vaginal fingering and sex)

Synopsis: When Bucky Barnes stops to get coffee and warm up at your coffee shop, he had just expected that caffeine might lift his mood a little. He didn’t expect to fall head-over-heels for you over a game of chess.

Chapter 8

He came into the Grind House the following Monday. It was during lunch so you made him a white chocolate mocha, toasted a panini and brought them over to the table by the fire with your own lunch and a caramel tart. The two of you had played a game of ‘Codenames Duets’, which he completely annihilated you at. While you had both played you talked about the plans for the week. He thought he had a mission coming up. You were considering buying some more games for the store.

In the final 10 minutes, you'd asked him if he'd come to.game night again. He said the only thing that would keep him away was HYDRA. He’d asked if you might like to go out on Saturday. You had said you'd love to.

That's how it was dating you for the most part. Playing games over lunch at The Grind House most days. He'd come to the game night, sometimes alone, sometimes with friends. Dates on the weekend that were often casual and always involved long makeout sessions. You hadn’t had sex yet. Not because either of you was waiting, but because you were being patient. You were leaving room for his body to catch up with what his mind wanted. He wanted to have sex with you, but the intense way his body reacted to just making out, he worried that there was no way he could get from there to sex without blowing his load. So you did other things. Kissing, dry humping, erotic massage. You showered together. You took baths. He got you off and oh god did you get him off as you patiently went through every kind of intimate touch so he could acclimatize to it.

It had only really been a few weeks since he’d officially asked you on a date but he was falling for you fast. He still had these huge worries about being with you. You were just a normal person who had lived an average life. There had been good and bad but you owned a coffee shop and played board games. You weren’t average by any sense of the word but you were good and untouched by the kind of life he had experienced. He worried that at some point the burden of the things he carried or the life he led now as a hero trying to clean up his past was going to be too much for you and in the end, you’d either get hurt or pull back before you let yourself be hurt.

Only it was exactly all that stuff that he was attracted to you for. You weren’t touched by this. He relaxed when he was around you. He smiled. God damn it, he let himself laugh with you. When he was visited you part of the world, the non-Avengers world, he felt a little bit like the guy he had been before he’d ever put that army uniform on all those years ago.

Which was really odd because he knew for a fact that that guy wouldn’t have been caught dead drinking salted caramel lattes in a place like The Grind House. He was too cool for things like that. He always had to be moving. He always had to show girls how extremely cool and talented he was all the time.

Now though…

Well, now he loved the Grind House. It was like it had been designed just for him. He loved how almost none of the chairs matched. He loved all the different board games and card games. He loved how it smelled. He loved the fireplace. He loved the different coffees and the sandwiches and the cake selection that never seemed the same from one day to the next.

He also thought he might love you.

Or at least he had that first little sparks of what could be love. Those little things that he definitely did love that led to actually falling in love with a person. He loved when you teased each other. He loved when you won a game and got all smug about it. He loved when he won you were always genuine with your congratulations. He loved how patient you were. How funny. How kind. God, the depth of your kindness seemed infinite. He’d never known anyone like that. He’d never known anyone so fearless and yet so absolutely determined to give to those who needed it. Steve came close he guessed, but where Steve had always solved problems with his fists you always went the pacifist route.

So it was there and he was falling hard and fast. It was scary and exciting. Like being on a rollercoaster where the risk was real but the reward was real too and just might be worth it.

Steve, Sam, and Natasha all seemed to think so. They were always pushing for more information. While not everyone always came to the game nights, if those there were in the city, they went with him. They talked him up to you even though, he kind of thought that wasn’t necessary. He wasn’t sure why still, but you seemed to genuinely like him. You didn’t act like you were feeling sorry for him. You weren’t scared of him. It was affection and it was real even if he wasn’t sure he deserved it.

You touched him on the tip of the nose and he blinked at you. “Where’d you go?” You asked.

He chuckled. “Space.”

“Oh yeah? That sounds fun. What were you doing in space?”

He pulled you tighter to him. “Oh, you know? Flying around in a spaceship at light speed. Meeting aliens.”

“Aliens like Thor?” You asked.

“Nope. More bit gelatinous blob monsters.”

You both started laughing and he pulled you against him. “Pity. Thor's hot. Maybe he could have given you some hot alien booty.”

Bucky completely lost it. He couldn't remember the last time he has laughed as hard or as genuinely as he was now. It had to have been before he was taken. Likely before the war.

He tightened his arms around you and nuzzled into your neck. “I love you so much.” The words were out before he realized he'd even said them.

You pulled back and smiled down at him, cupping his jaw. It felt like his heart had stopped. He was sure that was too soon to say it. Even if he did feel it as strongly as he did. You couldn't possibly feel the same way. Taking out the paranoia of no one loving him because of the monster he'd become. Saying ‘I love you’ too soon was relationship suicide.

Your smile was soft and reassuring and you caressed his cheek with your thumb. “I love you too, Bucky.”

It took a moment to process the words. To process that you’d said them back. Not only had you said them back but you had meant them. It wasn’t you trying to placate him or manipulate him. He loved you and you loved him right back.

A smile spread slowly over his face and he leaned in and kissed you. Slowly and tenderly at first before deepening it quickly. Your tongues dancing together as you moved your lips against his. He moaned softly, pulling you into his lap and you rolled your hips against him, his already rock hard cock rubbing through his clothes.

He groaned and bunched a hand in your hair as the other ran down your side and gripped your hip. You pulled back and looked down at him. “Let’s go to the bedroom.”

“Mmm good idea.” He teased and got up, lifting you with him. You squealed and kissed him hungrily as he carried you down to the bedroom he tossed you onto the bed and you let out another squeal as you bounced on the mattress. He laughed and climbed up on the bed after you, crawling over your body and leaning in to kiss you.

You cupped his jaw just before he did and looked into his eyes. “We can go at the pace you want. I have no expectations right now.”

He nodded. “You are too good to me.”

You shook your head. “Nope, you deserve the world.”

He leaned in and kissed you again, deeply and passionately. He wanted you now. His body ached for you, but he knew he was going to need to slow down at least a little. He rutted his hips, grinding down against you.

He broke the kiss and trailed his lips down your neck. Peppering your skin with kisses. He pulled back and lifted your shirt over your head before kissing his way down your body. He wanted to taste you. To make you come. To drink it up before he sunk his dick deep inside of you.

You squirmed under him and ran your fingers through his hair as he kissed down your stomach and pulled your pants down. He softly kissed the inside of each thigh before sucking hard enough to mark them. You moaned loudly and lifted your hips off the bed. Almost presenting your cunt to him, glistening with your arousal.

He hummed and breathed you in as he spread your folds with his fingers and licked his tongue over the exposed pink of your pussy. Wide at first, coating his tongue with your juices. Savoring the sweet and salty taste of them. As you squirmed and moaned and tugged on his hair he focused in on your clit, drawing random patterns over it. Sometimes large and sloppy, sometimes small and focused. Your moans got louder and you pushed him down into your cunt more. He chuckled and sucked your clit into his mouth and sucked on it as he pushed his fingers inside you.

He fucked you with them, curling them and stroking them inside you as he fucked you with his fingers. His senses were being overwhelmed. The sound of your moans filled the room as the scent and taste of your cunt filled him. His cock was hard and throbbing and he wanted to be inside you, but he needed you to come in his mouth. He wanted it badly.

He kept working your cunt, his fingers dragging over the soft spongy surface of your g-spot as he held your clit between his lips and flicked his tongue over it. You arched up suddenly and came. He kept pumping his fingers as he drank up what he could, your fluids running down his wrist and your body shuddered.

You sat up and guided him up with you, still breathing heavily, your eyes blown out with lust. He kissed you deeply and you pushed him back against the headboard of the bed without breaking the kiss. You unfastened his pants and pulled them down, his cock, sprang up and lay against his stomach, rock hard and throbbing. You hummed when you saw it and gently ran your fingers up its length. It jumped and twitched at your touch, sending a shiver up his spine.

“God, your dick is so fucking big.” You hummed as you climbed into his lap.

“I’ve noticed.” He teased and you both started giggling. “It’s partly the serum. Are you worried?”

You shook your head and slowly sunk down on it moaning as the wet warmth of your cunt enveloped him. You squeezed around his cock, sending a shock of pleasure through him, making him moan and buck up into you.

You relaxed your core muscles and slowly began to twist your hips on him. He groaned and looked up into your eyes. It felt like ecstasy. So good compared to anything he’d felt for so long. Even with the gradual build up, it still felt so much better than he had remembered. He leaned down and nuzzled at your breasts. He sucked on them. Pulled your nipples into his mouth and bit gently on them. He moved up, capturing your lips, kissing you hungrily.

His balls tightened and he started to thrust up into you. You rubbed your clit as he fucked you and you moaned into the kiss. Just as he was sure he wasn’t going to last any longer you came again, crying out and throwing your head back. The sudden clenching of your cunt was more than he could handle. He thrust hard up into you and came hard, grunting and burying his face in your neck.

The two of you collapsed down on the be and you curled up in his arms, resting your head on his chest. “Well, I got what I wanted,” You teased, running your hand over his chest.

He laughed. “Just that? I’m sure I could do better if you stuck around.”

You broke down into giggles. “Alright, alright. I guess another time might be okay.”

He chuckled and leaned down and kissed you. He wasn’t sure what he had done to deserve you, but he was definitely holding on to you now he’d found you.

// NEXT

#starspangledbingo #bucky barnes #bucky barnes x reader #the winter soldier #the winter soldier fanfic #fanfiction #fanfic #reader insert #smut #the grind house

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douxreviews · 5 years

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Legends of Tomorrow - ‘The Getaway’ Review

"My friends and I here are time travelers, we’ve kidnapped Nixon and we’re headed to Disneyworld."

The Legends serve up a giant sugary treat to help us get down a couple of awkward bitter pills. They don't need to get to Disneyworld, we're on an emotional rollercoaster already.

See what I did there?

There is a philosophy of screen-writing that, if at all possible, having the protagonist confront their emotional problem should be the solution to solving whatever their plot-related problem might be. See, for example, Craig Owens defusing a spaceship by declaring his unspoken love, or more subtly, Willow's lies finally being brought to light curing the Scooby Gang's amnesia.

It's easy to see this as being formulaic, but really it's just a matter of solid storytelling and remembering to give your narrative an emotional core. With the caveat that if it's done too awkwardly it's a one way ticket to schmaltz-town. See, for example, Craig Owen blowing up Cybermen with the power of father-love.

So, when I observe that this episode of Legends of Tomorrow is a textbook example of solid comedy overlaid onto a situation wherein one character is avoiding dealing with the emotional consequences of recent events, only to pivot to heartbreaking pain and reconciliations as the characters learn to honestly deal with their emotions, that's not a criticism. Doing that kind of thing well is a real skill, and they pull it off here quite well. Again, "Tabula Rasa" is a great example of the all-comedy to suddenly-way-too-real-drama pivot. It's done badly much more often than it's done well, so what we have here is well worth praising.

It helps enormously that the jokes in the jokey parts are pretty much all laugh-out-loud funny. The swallowable bug that makes you tell only the truth is 100% uncut phlebotinum, but it's grade-A phlebotinum, and it leads to Mick Rory confessing his desire to grow out his hair like Fabio, so let's all agree to cherish it forever. The phlebotinum-iness of it is made even more easy to take due to the fact that it's only used to cause Sara to blurt out those hurtful truths to Mona, which drives Mona away from the team. The painful truths that Sara has to confront to fix the situation, in which she both confesses how much she's hurt by the loss of Ava and how much she's failed Mona by not being there for her are all completely coming from herself and her own heart, which gives them genuine emotion and validity far beyond 'magic made me say it' plot contrivances.

The takeaway here, future screenwriters, is that you can only use the phlebotinum for the jokes. The genuine emotional responses have to be just that – genuine. I promise that that's the last time I will use the term phlebotinum in this review.

But we have to also acknowledge something about this episode. All the jokes and the post-breakup heartache and teambuilding are at least partially on display here to help us to get past the one, big, awkward, clunky plot correction that this episode needed to make happen.

This was the episode that needed to make Hank Heywood not the villain of the season anymore.

It will be interesting, later on, to find out exactly when and to what extent the plans for the season changed, but it seems abundantly clear that change they did. The Hank of the first half of the season was an unmitigated bastard, with the occasional moment of charm. He was being built up to be the face of the 'government turns monsters into evil monster soldiers' plotline. At least, it seems reasonably clear that that was what was happening to the monsters. That wasn't a spoiler, just my assumption about what Hank was doing with the monsters when he had them tortured. However, at some point they appear to have decided that Hank needed to be redeemed, and so we do a lot of back-paddling here in a short space of time to justify Hank suddenly deciding to let the Legends go when he finally had them dead to rights in order to make things right with his son.

Now, that's a fair story to tell, and I think they would have pulled it off easily if that's where they'd been intending to go all along. But here, in this episode, it feels very much like a retcon/course correction, and I just didn't buy it. Having the demon Neron in Dez' body kill Hank immediately after his redemption, and setting up things so that Nate thinks Nora killed him, thereby setting up a Nate/Hank rift, just felt contrived to me. I'm sorry about that, because the rest of this episode was fantastic, but there it is.

Still, we shouldn't complain too much over one awkward bit of plot housekeeping. It was great to see all the Legends together, more or less, and a road trip in an RV was just what they needed.

Aim for the horsies! Wait... .wrong show...

So what have we learned today?

We've learned to stop asking questions, since nobody seems to care about causality anymore. The Legends can watch Nixon's 'incorrect' version of the 'Not A Crook' speech from a future vantage point, then go back to change it so it doesn't happen. But then Mona becoming a were-kaupe in the middle of a restaurant goes totally unnoticed by history, not to mention the theft of an RV and a patrol car.

I don't know, I think maybe I should just enjoy having a show with time travel in it that doesn't get too concerned about temporal physics. As the MST3K them song so eloquently stated, 'If you're wondering where he eats or sleeps, or other science facts/ Then repeat to yourself, "it's just a show, I should really just relax."'

Sound advice.

Everybody remember where we parked.

Nixon's famous 'I am not a crook' quote was from a televised Q & A that was, in fact, at Disneyworld on November 17, 1973. The Legends pick Nixon up pre-emptively in Washington D.C. a few days before that, but apparently Nixon's truth telling was already an observed problem by the White House staff. We hope that after the events shown they got around to going back for Charlie. The running joke of realizing that they'd forgotten her was very, very funny. I'd forgotten her too, the first time it came up.

The Time Bureau still appears to be in 2018, although they didn't directly say so. Zari once again appears to be a conduit between the 2018 Bureau and wherever in time the Legends are at the time. It's just a show. I should really just relax.

Abrupt redemption arcs can be quite painful.

Quotes:

Mick: "What? No Redford? No Sundance. No indie film. No artful nudity. We gotta fix this!"

Gary: "I’ve always wanted to untangle a conspiracy. I’ll need a bulletin board… index cards… I already have yarn, I’ve been getting into crochet." Zari: "Yeah? Me too." Gary: "We should start a club." Zari: "We’ll talk."

Mona: "Grrr."

Agent: "Here that? The truth. Something is very wrong with the President."

Hank: "Siri… Alexa… Gideon! Fire up the ship!"

John: "A bit on the nose, no?" Sara: "We left subtle back in Mexico."

Mona: "You know, I’ve never been in a car that’s a room before."

John: "Not to bother you, but we’ve lost the ship, drugged the President, and I’m stuck in the back with her."

Sara: "Maybe it’s best if we all just don’t talk."

Sara: "Maybe that’s what family is – the family you don’t mind being annoyed by."

Bits and pieces:

-- The group truth telling scene was comedy gold.

-- It looks like they're definitely setting up Zari and Nate as a couple. Sigh. Oh well, I'll learn to live with it.

-- We finally get a Ray and Mick pairing on their own mission, and we barely get to see any of it. That was disappointing.

-- No Ava this week. I wonder if that was for the plot convenience of Hank being in charge, or if Jes Macallan had another commitment. It was probably the right choice to take her completely off the board while we process things with Sara.

-- Several clever plot details this week. Zari's solution to communicating with the RV and Nate's plan for getting Hank's password were both nicely done.

-- This was the first time they've found a way to use Charlie's powers that didn't make her feel too powerful to be part of the team.

-- Whoever's idea it was for all of them to have changed into t-shirts that read, 'Barnes family vacation – Our family is a trip!' should be given anything they ask for, immediately.

-- John's little 'not really a speech' to Sara was a nice bit of dialogue writing.

-- Having a were-kaupe on the team who retains their personality and reason and who can transform on command kind of works.

-- Despite the way she was set up for being blamed for Hank's death being a little contrived, I like the way they got Nora back onto the board here. I hope they don't go the obvious route with Nate wanting revenge.

-- Did they ever give even a handwave explanation for why Zari is working at the Bureau and not on the Waverider now? I mean, from the Bureau's perspective. I get from Zari's point of view why she's there.

So much funny. So much emotional honestly. Just a little bit of clunky plot mechanics.

Three out of four forbidden red toilet buttons.

Mikey Heinrich is, among other things, a freelance writer, volunteer firefighter, and roughly 78% water.

#Legends of Tomorrow #Sara Lance #John Constantine #Ray Palmer #Mick Rory #Zari Tomaz #Mona Wu #DC Comics #Arrowverse #Legends of Tomorrow Reviews #Doux Reviews #TV Reviews

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avengerofyourheart · 6 years

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Flour Girl {3} (Bucky x reader AU)

Characters: reader, Bucky (Jimmy), Clint, Wanda.

Summary: Discovering the cute guy you just flirted with is the heir of a rival bakery, you suddenly find yourself running into him all over the city. Can your small boutique bakery compete? And how do you deal with the guy who seems determined to make your life a living hell? Luckily you’re distracted by a secret admirer…But who is he? (Inspired by “You’ve Got Mail”, Enemies to Lovers)

Warnings: none! Mild swearing?

Word Count: 1.1k

A/N: You guys!!! I’m so happy that you’re all excited for more!! Like...more texting banter and ridiculous insults?? ;) haha. I adore you all for your support LOVE all the feedback I’m receiving! Please let me know your thoughts on part 3!! I adore you all!!<3

<<Part 2 Part 3 Part 4>>

Flour Girl Series Masterlist

Full Masterlist

_________________________________________________________

Previously:

Back at work, you couldn’t help but think about that absurd text conversation. It was probably just a one-time thing, but it definitely turned your whole day around. Pulling out the ingredients to make tart dough, you couldn’t help but hum to yourself. Thank you, dude.

____________

Later that afternoon, you had finished most of your prep work for the day but chose to avoid the paperwork waiting in your office, so you told Wanda she could take a break. You loved the baking behind the scenes, but also enjoyed helping customers when you had the time.

Carrying a tray of almond croissants fresh from the oven, you grabbed a set of tongs and began restocking the empty space in the pastry case. They had sold out quickly today, which made you proud.

“Ooh, those look good,” you heard a male voice say.

Straightening up from your crouch position, you turned with a smile to greet him but instead met a familiar face. Unfortunately.

“Y/N, was it? This is a cute little shop,” Jimmy spoke, his eyes wandering around the bakery that was your pride and joy. The words were complimentary, but the way he said it made it sound condescending. Or maybe you were imagining things.

“What are you doing here?” you said, a little sharply.

“I recall that you said I should come visit this morning. Did I mishear you, or…” he trailed off with a raised eyebrow.

You fumbled with the tongs, embarrassed. “I…well, that was before…I didn’t know…” You took a deep breath and calmed your nerves. “Are you here to spy on me? Check out the competition?”

Jimmy scoffed at that. “Hardly. My father has been in business for 20 years. We’re good at what we do. Most small businesses fail within the first year, especially food establishments. He’s seen many shops come and go without any worry, so, no. I don’t think there’s any need for me to spy,” he smirked, amused at your reaction.

You couldn’t help it. Anger filled you as he all but said that you were going to fail. That you weren’t even worth considering as competition. You’ve given your heart and soul, your life’s blood into this bakery. How dare he belittle you and your business? And yet, you stood frozen with tongs in hand, unable to fire back with a witty retort in the moment.

“So. Can I get one of your almond croissants and a ganache tart, please? They’ve come highly recommended.” Jimmy continued to give that smirk that you’d love to smack right off his face.

“Of course!” you heard Wanda reply from behind you, unaware she had returned. “Do you want me to take over Y/N?”

Recovering from the unfair accusations from the man before you, all you could do was hand Wanda the tongs and slink back into the kitchen without a word. The fury returned as you paced back and forth between the workbench and shelves of ingredients opposite. There wasn’t much room to pace, but after a few passes you were fuming. You heard the jangle of bell the over the door and dared to peek out of the kitchen.

“Is he gone?” you asked in a whisper.

Wanda looked at you warily. “Yeah? Why, who was that?”

“Jimmy Barnes.”

She gasped. “As in…”

“Barnes Bakery, yup. He’s the owner’s son, back from college I guess,” you uttered, leaning heavily on the counter as all the anger left you. It was too late to reply now, anyway.

“I heard about him! I guess he has a degree in business now and wants to help out his dad. Jimmy, huh? Too bad. He was cute,” Wanda said with a shrug.

You huffed out a sigh. Of course he’s cute. He probably knows he’s cute, too. The jerk. “Um…I’ll be in back. Let me know if you need anything and I’ll come help close up in a while.”

“Mmkay,” Wanda chirped as she wiped down the counter.

Back in your office, you stared at the paperwork before you, but couldn’t get your brain to focus as thoughts tumbled. He thinks I’m destined to fail? Ugh! How dare that pretty boy with a business degree tell me that my hard work will be for nothing?

A short time later, Wanda asked for more cinnamon rolls and as you set a timer on your phone for the oven, you had a thought. A little random pick-me-up couldn’t hurt.

FG: Did dillweed ever fix the order?

Your finger hovered over the send button as you hesitated, then pressing it before you could overthink too much. Three dots appeared. Guess he hadn’t ruined his current phone just yet.

B: Yeah, he did. Had to chase him down along his delivery route, but I twisted his arm.

The three dots remained after the first message so you waited for him to finish typing.

B: Not that I don’t appreciate it, but why message me now? Weren’t you all “Stranger Danger”?

The last phrase made you smile as you let go of the events of the afternoon and chose to text this stranger once again.

FG: I am still wary of all strangers, including you. But I had a run-in with someone just now who made me want to….Well…I probably shouldn’t say. Plausible deniability. You know. I could use a distraction.

B: I can distract with the best of them. You can message me anytime. What did they do?

Chewing on your lip a moment, you figured out a general way to explain your frustration without too many details. He was still a stranger, after all.

FG: Just some uppity know-it-all who passed judgement about me and my work. Condescending ass….

B: What a dick. I’m sorry.

FG: Yeah, well. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about, so his rude opinion is not at all valid.

B: That’s right! You go, girl. Or something.

By this point you were full-on grinning down at your phone, the afternoon’s events all but forgotten. Glancing at the clock, you saw that it was near closing time. You were almost sad to say goodbye, which was weird. One more message and it was time to return to reality.

FG: Thank you. What does B stand for, anyway? Brian? Bernard? Bozo the Clown?

B: *laughing emoji* I asked you first.

You chuckled at that.

FG: Touche’. I better go. Later, dude.

B: Bye, Franny.

Locking your phone, you straightened the last of your paperwork and headed up front to help Wanda. All the little cleaning tasks didn’t seem so bad as you blasted music and danced along. Crawling into bed that night, you set an early alarm and thought back on the crazy events of the day. It was quite the rollercoaster, but you were just grateful that it ended on a high note. Tomorrow was another day, you thought as you got comfortable on your pillow with a hint of a smile on your lips.

________________

Part 4>>

______________________________________________________

Ahhh!! So??? What did you think of Jimmy showing up at the bakery, out of the blue? He definitely has some strong opinions about the baking business! Don't you hate it when you can't come up with the right witty response in the moment? So frustrating!! That text conversation, though... Who’s the mysterious man? He’s definitely a lovely distraction. ;) Please let me know your thoughts on this part! I adore you guys!! <3

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#bucky x reader #bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes fic #bucky au #bakery au #reader x bucky #reader x bucky barnes #bucky barnes imagine #bucky fluff #avengers au #marvel fan fic #avengers fan fic #flour girl fic #baking

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akalittlemisscrazy · 6 years

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Backpacking Escapes: Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai. Our last stop in Thailand. This and Koh Phi Phi were by far my favourites. The whole city had a much more relaxed vibe than Bangkok so I actually enjoyed walking around. It was fairly low and flat, which again suits me better than the towers of the capital. As one of our longer visits, I’ve got so much to talk about here.

The Monk’s Trail is an ancient trail that was once part of the pilgrimage route to Doi Suthep Temple. The first half of this trail was fairly easy – the path was (mostly - we occasionally got distracted by waterfalls) easy to follow and not too steep. Wat Pha Lat sits in the middle of the mountainside and can only be reached by hiking the trail. This means it is more peaceful; no weaving through crowds and no annoying tour groups. This temple had a gorgeous serene spiritual feel. In addition to being beautiful and quiet, this site sits on top of a waterfall. The sound of running water always relaxes me and it would have been truly wonderful to sit and meditate here for an hour or two.

Unfortunately we already had other plans. Time for the second half of the trail – which we had already been warned was more difficult. By “more difficult” they meant scrambling up almost vertical slippery slopes, over fallen trees and into the true depths of the jungle. We eventually made it, after trekking a non-existent path and accidentally coming in through the back entrance (and therefore accidentally avoiding the entrance fee….oops?). Doi Suthep, whilst pretty, was overrun with disrespectful tourists who unfortunately ruined it slightly for me. For those of you who don’t know – you shouldn’t turn your back on Buddha images, you shouldn’t show the soles of your feet to Buddha or to other people and you shouldn’t disturb people who have come to pray (you’d hope this is common sense but you wouldn’t believe the number of people taking selfies in front of people praying and shouting loudly). On a more positive note the view definitely made the hike worth while. It also surprised us how high we had climbed. Upon Googling when we got back to the hostel, we discovered we had essentially climbed as high as Snowdon in 35*C humid weather fully covered (as you dress for the trail as you would for a temple, with your knees and shoulders covered) in about 2-2.5 hours. Not bad if we do say so ourselves.

Elephant Nature Park was AMAAAAAZZZZZZINGGGGGGG. I’ve written a whole blog post purely on this so if you’re interested please scroll down to read it. In summary, this park is the tranquil sanctuary to over 30 rescued elephants where they are rehabilitated, healed and allowed to roam freely as close to wild elephants as possible. Minimal human interaction is used unless the elephants choose to approach you themselves. This magical place is well worth a visit and Chiang Mai is 100% the place to go if you want to interact with Asian Elephants relatively safely and eco-friendly. There are several charities all trying to stop elephant riding but from our research (which was extensive) ENP is the one where animal welfare is truly at the heart and soul of every single thing they do.

Zip lining through the jungle is another popular activity in Chiang Mai – this again took thorough research before we choose Jungle Flight for a combination of reasonable prices, good safety record and great TripAdvisor reviews. Again our research paid off. I’ve been zip lining before but this was somehow entirely different. The guides were friendly and hilarious, making the whole experience even more enjoyable whilst making sure everyone stayed safe. One of the highlights of our day was the 1000 metre zip line flying over the jungle canopy. This is longest zip wire in Thailand and I was doing my terrified excited high-pitched laugh (if you’re friends with me you know exactly which one I’m on about) all the way down.

We chose the Ultimate package, meaning that we also got to go on the jungle rollercoaster. When we booked this we were expecting one of those old carts you sit in and go down a set of rails on the forest floor. The reality we were met with was a single rail suspended from wires twisting through the jungle branches and a set of handlebars with a wheel mechanism which sat on the rail. Now don’t panic parents – our harness safety lines were strapped onto the handle securely. However this didn’t mean you could relax. You still had to hang on for dear life as you were flung around corners so sharply you thought you might genuinely do a 360 around the pole. Before we got on, our guide asked did we want to go fast or slow. Thinking what the heck we’ll only do this once we chose the fast one. He repeatedly asked us if we were sure; we are only itty bitty girls after all. Feeling confident I hopped on first – not long after cue more of that screaming laughter. This was absolutely epic but dear god it was terrifying. A voice in my head kept screaming at me ‘why on earth did you pick the fast one?’ or something along the lines of 'AHHHHHH DODGE THE TREE!’. We then continued with a few more zip lines before we reached the final station – a roughly 100 metre drop straight down, putting all your trust in the guide holding the other end of your rope at the top. As I’m not the biggest fan of heights and after all our escapades up in the trees I was glad to reach the bottom in one piece. All in all I would definitely recommend this and I would gladly do it again – at least I know what to expect next time.

Temples wise we only visited the top 2 recommended Wats (Wat Chedi Luang and Wat Phra Singh) but there are 300 to choose from in Chiang Mai. Wat Chedi Luang was particularly interesting to visit as the site has the new modern temple as well as the ruins of the original temple behind it. An earthquake has destroyed the dome but a large portion of it is still standing and in fairly good condition.

Overall Thailand was one of the most wonderful places I’ve ever had the pleasure of visiting. Despite the fact we only left 24 hours ago I can’t wait to go back. I found the Thai people very respectful and very welcoming. Their culture is fascinating and so appealing. The food was absolutely delicious of course – now getting to used to a knife & fork again instead of a spoon & fork may be interesting. And without question the countryside, beaches, cliffs & forests were out of this world. It was an amazing life changing experience that I can’t wait to build on. As cheesy as it sounds I feel I’ve grown as a person and have several new things to add to my bucket list for the next time I visit. See you again soon Thailand!

#backpackingescapes #backpacking #traveling #chiangmai #thailand #elephants #zipline #jungleflight #elephantnaturepark

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sonnet009 · 6 years

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Spoilery Bahadur Asks (Part 4)

SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT

Anonymous said:

While playing Bahadur's route I kept thinking of the part in the Wayhaven Chronicles demo where you see things from the guy's POV because I kept thinking "dammit I want one for Bahadur because this guy's inner thoughts have got to be a powder keg". He's such an interesting character, I really like how, especially early on, not everything is spelled out with him, and you really have to put the effort in to actually understand him. Really incredible character writing!

Aw, that’s a really kind thing to say! It was definitely a challenge, walking the line between keeping Bahadur’s feelings mostly unspoken while still showing that, whatever they were, they were immense.

And I love how we get snippets from the ROs’ POVs in Wayhaven. It’s definitely an effective technique!

Anonymous said:

Man I especially love Royo in Bahadur's route. All her quips about his size made me laugh, and she was so charming. I'd be happy even just having a best friend route with her, but I'm really glad she's one of the dateable options <3

Yay! I’m so happy that Royo’s becoming more and more popular! And it’s good that you find her charming -- her route will be pretty unbearable, otherwise! ^_^

Anonymous said:

Miss Sonnet, you did an absolutely fabulous job on Bahadur's route! If his neck wasn't so gosh-darn huge I'd have wrapped my hands around it and throttled him quite a few times, lol! Quit playing me like a fiddle! I'm glad that the (possible) sex scenes took into account how far you went with Baha--that was probably the one and only nitpick I had with Ran's route. Can't wait to see what you have in store for us on the other routes!

Thank you. ^_^ Haha! His actions, while understandable, are certainly rather aggravating, aren’t they!

And yep, I’d like to think that I learnt my lesson from Ran’s route, when it comes to the sex scenes.

Anonymous said:

I wonder how everything would have played out if MC accidentally said "I love you" when they were making love on the ship, would it have been any different?

Possibly? Bahadur might just have tried to pretend he didn’t hear.

Anonymous said:

I love the fact that Bahadur refuses a direct order from the MC. That alone got me more excited than the love scenes. I love it when he speaks his mind!

I’m glad you like that moment! It was one of my favourite bits to write.

Anonymous said:

Hi! I absolutely loved Bahadur's route <3 One thing I'd be really interested in asking about is the progression of Bahadur's feelings. When did he start to have romantic feelings to the MC? When did he start feeling physical attraction to her? It's clear their journey together kick started a lot of things, so I was wondering if it really started then.

The foundation had been there for a while -- like he says, he loved her from the beginning, though it was as someone loves something precious they’ve been given to protect. It isn’t until their journey together, once he’s away from the stifling prison of Ziya and the villa, and he sees just how much she has been growing and changing under his very nose, that he can even allow himself to think of her in that way. But once he has that first thought, that’s it -- he’s doomed. He’s head over heels in love.

Anonymous said:

Is Marco gonna be okay? I’m a forever Stan of our emotionally repressed gladiator valet but I hope my fav sweetheart senator found love too

Oh, Marco will be just fine. He’s a good guy -- someone will snatch him up eventually. In the meantime, he’s got a huge family of brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews to dote upon back in Greenhaven.

Anonymous said:

Just got done playing Bahadur's route and boyy was that intense! I was legit scared for MC and Baha's life in some scenes thinking that I'd get the bad ending (Trash's bad ending also came to mind so I knew that this isn't a fairytail) Whew, it was a rollercoaster and I loved it. It was WELL worth the wait. Excited for Amir's route and a job well done to you sonnet! ^^

I’m so glad! Thank you. ^_^ I hope you enjoy Amir, too!

#asks #Wilder asks #spoilers

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aboutminneapoliscbku640 · 4 years

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The 13 Best Pinterest Boards for Learning About Things to do in Minneapolis

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( C), Mom Lake (D), Lake of the Isles (E), Lake Hiawatha (F), Lake.

Harriet (G), Ruby Lake (H). Display/hide their areas on the map.

If you live in Downtown, getting around in winter is never a trouble.

many thanks to the skyway system. Attaching on the 2nd floors of all.

significant downtown office and house buildings, the skyway system is an.

cutting-edge hallway network allowing you to stroll for miles without ever.

going outside.

Minneapolis, Mn.

The arts scene in Minneapolis is top-notch and comprehensive. One of the.

city's specialties is that it has even more movie theater seats per head than.

any type of city beyond New york city, and the doing arts neighborhood in.

specific is as active and also diverse as they come. Epic venues like.

the Guthrie Theater and the First Opportunity Bar are only the idea of.

the iceberg when it pertains to live music, as well as the city's enormous network.

of museums (including spots like the Pedestrian Art Center as well as.

Minneapolis Institute of Art) is among the most effective in the USA.

This Minnesota destinations among the most enjoyable leading instructional.

facilities to check out in the state. With exhibitions such as The World of.

Sharks in 3D, and also lots of multimedias displays covering subjects like biology.

and sociology, the Scientific research Museum of Minnesota is a fascinating place.

to check out.

Visitor attractions: Bill & & Bonnie Daniels Firefighters Hall & & Museum

.( 664 22nd Avenue Northeast) (1 ), Golden Wings Museum (8891 Airport Roadway.

Northeast Suite 6C) (2 ), Minneapolis Institute of Arts (Museums; 2400.

3rd Method South) (3 ), Holy Land Exhibition (Museums; 434 Ridgewood Opportunity).

( 4 ), Hennepin Background Museum (2303 3rd Avenue South) (5 ), Center for.

Early Knowing & & Living of the Sciences (Galleries; 4139 Regent Opportunity.

North) (6 ), Aminah Hair Sytlist (Galleries; 7500 69th Method North) (7 ),.

Fridley Historic Society Gallery (611 Mississippi Road Northeast).

( 8 ), American Wings Air Museum (2141 Rhode Island Method) (9 ).

Display/hide their approximate areas on the map.

Things To Do In Minneapolis.

Have a look at the Budweiser Roofing system Deck before heading pull back to the.

playing field. The trip will take you with the background of the Doubles.

group, highlighting previous as well as present players, outstanding displays of.

baseball memorabilia, and special ecological features of the having fun.

area.

The exhibition aims to create crucial believing abilities through forensic.

examination, scientific questions, and innovation, by supplying a.

multi-sensory experience where visitors can dive right into the world of.

criminal offense scene investigation.

St Paul Minnesota.

Enhancing the home-away-from-home ambience is a food selection full of.

sublime concoctions from mouthwatering lamb scottadito to pillowy.

pan-fried gnocchi surrounded in brittle Parmigiano Reggiano. Open up until 1.

a.m. on weekends, the location is constantly packed and getting a table is not.

easy, yet definitely worth the delay.

Minneapolis Minnesota.

Pop, rock and also indie songs acts do, however it is not only arising.

artists as also bands with huge followings will play 2 evenings at.

First Opportunity versus than one night at a larger location. Significant talents that.

have actually enhanced the phase consist of the Indigo Girls, Tina Turner, The Black.

Eyed Peas, Inexpensive Method, Phish, and also extra. A photograph with the wall surface of.

celebrities in the background is a must-do souvenir of Minneapolis.

. Youngsters and also kids-at-heart will certainly like exploring these top 10 kid-approved.

quits in the Twin Cities. From larger-than-life dinosaurs as well as interior.

water parks to roller rollercoasters and four-story indoor backyard, there's.

no shortage of family members enjoyable.

Featuring an universal collection of over 80,000 things, spanning.

5,000 years of globe history, the MIA is residence to among the finest.

considerable art collections in the nation, including impressive.

exhibitions and also collections of art from Africa, Oceania as well as the.

Americas, as well as a huge collection of Eastern art and also sculpture.

Enchanting weekend vacations near me, springtime break, places to live: Orange.

Region Beaches, New Zealand Beaches, Fairbanks, Aberdeen, Providence,.

Lake George, Leesburg, Niagara Falls, Richmond, Virginia Purchasing, Ann.

Arbor, Sausalito, Morrison, Puerto Rico Beaches, Athens GA, Portugal.

Coastlines, Zagreb Hotels.

23 Best Points To Do In Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Situated on the west bank of the Mississippi River, next to Gold Medal.

Park and also the Mill City Gallery in downtown Minneapolis, the Guthrie.

Movie theater has won numerous honors for its style by Jean Nouvel and.

attracts visitors from around the globe to admire its architecture.

The movie theater residences 3 theaters with a trademark ‘‘ thrust' stage, and also a.

78-foot cantilevered bridge called the "Countless Bridge.".

History Of Minneapolis.

The piano on the baggage case degree in Terminal 1 is not simply for program.

Anybody is invited to play it; you may even be delighted by a.

expert artist or sensation while waiting for your travel luggage.

Need to know the very best areas in Minnesota? Just how about pointers on exactly how to make.

one of the most of your time in a details city? Our Minnesota experts can.

address your questions, offer suggestions, or plan the excellent Minnesota journey.

for you. Free of cost.

MSP has an official 1.4-mile walking course in Terminal 1, sponsored by.

the American Heart Organization. It's a healthy and balanced means to waste time on a.

layover or to stroll off a few of that gourmet airport price.

Things To Do In Minneapolis.

Every little thing regarding Manny's is larger than life, from extra-large items of.

meat offered with a collection of sides, to must-try decadent treats.

The restaurant flaunts a 300-bottle white wine listing, along with considerable.

book list. If you are seeking one-of-a-kind day evening suggestions in.

Minneapolis, this dining establishment is a good choice.

10 Factors To Explore Msp Flight Terminal.

The Pedestrian rests opposite the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, a sculpture.

park on the north side of the Walker School as well as is collaboration between.

the Pedestrian as well as the Minneapolis Park as well as Recreation Board. Housed in an.

architecturally magnificent building, the museum is a must-visit.

Minneapolis' origins were as a mill community, first processing timber, and.

after that becoming the biggest flour-producing city in the nation in the late.

19th as well as early 20th centuries. Today the flour mills stand idle, have.

been torn down, or converted to chic lofts, yet you can see a look of.

that time at the Mill City Gallery on the financial institution of the Mississippi in.

midtown Minneapolis.

2 aviation-inspired play locations (one in each terminal) will certainly maintain the.

kids inhabited while you wait on your trip, as will certainly the.

tasty deals with at Rocky Hill Chocolate Factory. There's additionally.

private as well as plush nursing areas for family members taking a trip with babies or.

moms that need a peaceful location to pump, located in both terminals.

The house for the Minnesota Twins is at Target Field in the western side.

of midtown Minneapolis. The arena is an outdoor ballpark and also. received praise from ballplayers as well as viewers for the seating, views,.

environment, and also giving ins options. Participating in a game is a best means.

to spend a pleasant summer night in the city prior to getting hold of a drink or.

bite after the 9th inning in neighboring downtown Minneapolis.

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to Do in Minneapolis, Free Points to Do in Minneapolis.

When you have actually registered, you obtain a key or passcode, which you after that.

insert into the needed port at one of the many bike terminals throughout.

the city, obtain the green light and take your bike. You will certainly be offered a.

certain amount of time to use the bike, according to your pass or.

membership, after which time the bike needs to be returned to any type of.

station. When the bike is locked right into the terminal, your trick or pass is.

cleared, as well as you are great to go. Fast, simple as well as inexpensive, it's the.

excellent way to explore the city at your very own rate.

Weekend vacations, leading 10 things to do, areas to check out near me: South.

Padre Island, Lexington,, Erwin, Floyd, Essex, Biloxi, Erie,.

Restaurants in Lancaster, Restaurants in Lake Tahoe, Realm, Eastham,.

Escanaba.

Rest in before your return flight as well as stay on-site at.

the InterContinental Resort. The 12-story hotel features a health facility, two.

signature dining establishments, a penthouse cocktail bar and an advanced.

gym.

Points To Do In Minneapolis.

112 Restaurant is an acclaimed downtown dining establishment that supplies a laid-back.

atmosphere, top-notch service, and also unbelievable food. Acclaimed cook.

Isaac Becker has actually created this cozy place where the hardwood floorings and also.

exposed brick wall surfaces resemble a comfy apartment as opposed to a.

slim restaurant, making it the perfect go-to area for a decadent supper.

or late-night bite.

Found within the Shopping Center of America, the Nickelodeon World is the.

worlds biggest indoor entertainment park. The premises have more than 50.

trips, ideal for young and also older youngsters—— from looping coasters, like.

Shredder's Mutant Masher, to more smooth classics, like an antique horse.

slide carousel.

. Pop into locally started Aveda to example some products, get a pre-flight.

adjustment at The Chiroport, or kick back as well as take pleasure in a costs shoe luster.

You can also obtain a full mani/pedi, hair styling and also facial treatments at.

XpresSpa; no visit essential.

Dating back to the 1870s, the mill complex is listed on the National.

Historic District, playing a crucial function in the conservation and also.

education of the state's heritage.

Diving accredited scuba divers can endure the waters and dive with sharks, while.

other visitors can join feeding times with stingrays,.

seahorses, and also rainbow coral reef fish. The fish tank provides a variety of fun.

sea-based tasks and journeys for all, consisting of stamp terminals.

with dive books for kids, behind the curtain tours and overnight.

keeps.

youtube

Romantic places near me this weekend, all inclusive, live songs, distinct.

buying in the area, nightlife for tourists: Whistler, Shanghai, South.

America Cruises, New Zealand Cruises, Ireland Cruises, Winnipeg,.

Beijing, Paris resorts, charming Niagara Falls, Points to Do in Ghent,.

Brussels, Nepal, Finest European getaway, Arizona Day Trips, Cincinnati,.

Finest place to remain in Grand Teton, Adelaide.

Famous People From Minneapolis.

Started in 1963, the Guthrie Cinema is a center for theater.

performance, production, education and learning and also expert training with the.

purpose of subjecting and also connecting target markets to traditional literary works and new.

works from diverse cultures around the globe.

10 Factors To Discover Msp Airport.

Minnesota's prospering neighborhood food scene greets site visitors as quickly as they.

touch down at MSP, where a lot of Minneapolis-St. Paul's best cooks as well as.

restaurateurs have actually opened up shop. Satisfy your internal food lover with.

choices like coal-fired pizza at Black Sheep, fresh sushi at PinKU,.

neighborhood craft beer from Stone Arc or a Tattersall craft alcoholic drink from the.

Alcoholic Drink Room at 18th & & Central.

Hing on the financial institutions of the historical Mississippi Riverfront and built.

into the damages of what was when the world's biggest flour mill, called.

the Washburn "" A"" Mill, Mill City Museum is a little, intimate gallery that.

presents birth and also growth of Minneapolis and the succeeding background of.

the expanding city with the flour industry as well as the river.

For foodies (and those with food allergic reactions) Bryant Lake Dish supplies.

in your area sourced grub and a gluten-free menu. Searching for an activity.

prior to playing a game? The attached movie theater to Bryant Lake also hosts.

everything from plays, local artists, as well as also an once a week worship.

Minneapolis-st. Paul Location.

First Method is a genuine icon of Minneapolis. When the downtown.

Minneapolis Greyhound bus depot, the structure was remodeled in 1970 into.

a real-time songs location by tearing whatever out, adding a stage, a noise.

system, as well as painting the entire place black. The place has legitimate.

music cred— — Royal prince performed below in the early days of his profession.

Things To Do In Minneapolis.

The Twin Cities' reputation as a hub for arts is reflected throughout.

MSP. Several mosaics decorate both concourses, the flight terminal hosts an.

annual staff member art program as well as competition, and a triad of Snoopy statuaries makes.

for an enjoyable scavenger hunt.

Resting and appreciating an expensive alcoholic drink is great—— learning exactly how to make that.

fancy cocktail in the house is also much better. The professionals behind bench at the.

Norseman Distillery reveal their tricks of the profession throughout classes at.

their Cocktail Laboratory each month. The sessions feature hands-on.

guidelines, recipe cards, and 3 samplings.

The fish tank boasts a 1,500 gallon Pacific Northwest Rockpool where.

visitors can discover unusual sea animals such as cucumbers as well as sea.

polyps by touch, in addition to a 300-foot glass underwater passage for.

remarkable views of sharks.

Minneapolis Minnesota.

Initially run by General Mills, the mill blew up and captured fire.

numerous times throughout its working life. Once deserted, a virtually.

tragic fire ruined a lot of the mill. The Minnesota Historic.

Facility finally organized the remains, which were stabilized and a.

gallery was constructed inside the ruins. The museum is among the very best areas.

to explore the history of Minneapolis.

Annual Occasions In Minneapolis.

From hip kids to wealthy experts, the trendy shops in Uptown.

Minneapolis hosts the facilities they such as to constant. Stylish bars,.

restaurants, and also stylish shops are collected around the junction of.

Hennepin Opportunity and Lake Road, the heart of Uptown Minneapolis. If.

people-watching is the goal, grab a seat at one of the regional coffee.

shops as well as appreciate the parade of fashionistas going by. The location is a.

couple of blocks from Lake Calhoun, where the the upper class most likely to.

sunbathe in the summer, as well as run or rollerblade around the lake.

Attractions & & Tasks.

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Famous Individuals From Minneapolis.

The Minneapolis Institute of Arts is the major art gallery in.

Minneapolis, with items covering several centuries from throughout the.

globe. Functions from classical times with modern-day art fill this substantial area,.

where it's very easy to get lost for a whole day. The gallery has a range.

of special programs, varying from attracting courses for youngsters to a.

weekly cocktail and also art evening each Thursday.

St Paul Minnesota.

Izzy's Gelato is an ice lotion organization, with shops in Minneapolis.

as well as St. Paul. Possessed and managed by Lara as well as Jeff Sommers, what began as.

a little kitchen area serving hand-made gelatos has actually turned into the city's.

preferred ice cream area.

10 Reasons To Check Out Msp Flight Terminal.

"" New cool things to do in Minneapolis, Minnesota"" Back to Leading or Charming.

Escapes,

0 notes

aboutminneapolislskq978 · 4 years

Text

The Biggest Problem With St Paul Minnesota, And How You Can Fix It

Minneapolis Minnesota

Outdoor tourist attractions in Minnesota consist of Minnehaha Falls, an attractive

eco-friendly area located in the heart of Minneapolis. The drops are just one of

the major Minnesota tourist attractions when seeing the Double Cities. The

stretching residential property affords visitors excellent mountain cycling trials,

treking routes, picnic locations and also lots of various other tasks.

Regarding Minneapolis

Exposed brick, wood floors, gas fireplace, 3 panel doors, natural

woodwork, wonderful kitchen area granite counter tops and also stainless-steel

devices, in an open design with a center island, upper degree laundry,

a new high performance furnace just set up.

Famous Individuals From Minneapolis

Every big city needs a location where locals and also visitors can loosen up

as well as relax away from the stressful speed of the city. Lake Calhoun in

Minneapolis is simply the area to go when you wish to unwind. Rental fee

paddle boats, swim, canoe, fish or simply rest by the coasts as well as take pleasure in some

fantastic people-watching!

The house itself has actually been carefully looked after by the existing ownersand

boasts an useful flooring plan with lots of all-natural light, big open

idea kitchen area with stainless-steel appliances, morning meal buffet, & & a. fantastic space with a wood-burning fire place.

Lakes and also reservoirs: Birch Fish pond (A), Powderhorn Lake (B), Lake Nokomis.

( C), Mommy Lake (D), Lake of the Isles (E), Lake Hiawatha (F), Lake.

Harriet (G), Diamond Lake (H). Display/hide their areas on the map.

If you stay in Downtown, navigating in winter months is never ever an issue.

thanks to the skyway system. Connecting on the 2nd floorings of all.

major midtown office as well as apartment, the skyway system is an.

innovative hallway network permitting you to walk for miles without ever.

going outside.

youtube

Minneapolis, Mn.

The arts scene in Minneapolis is superior and also extensive. Among the.

city's specialties is that it has more cinema seats per head than.

any kind of city outside of New york city, as well as the executing arts area in.

certain is as active as well as varied as they come. Epic places like.

the Guthrie Movie Theater and also the First Avenue Club are just the idea of.

the iceberg when it pertains to live music, and the city's gigantic network.

of galleries (including spots like the Pedestrian Art Center and also.

Minneapolis Institute of Art) is among the very best in the USA.

This Minnesota attractions among the most fun leading instructional.

facilities to visit in the state. With exhibitions such as The World of.

Sharks in 3D, as well as lots of mixed media displays covering subjects like biology.

and also sociology, the Scientific research Gallery of Minnesota is a fascinating place.

to see.

Visitor destinations: Bill & & Bonnie Daniels Firefighters Hall & & Museum

.( 664 22nd Opportunity Northeast) (1 ), Golden Wings Museum (8891 Airport Terminal Road.

Northeast Suite 6C) (2 ), Minneapolis Institute of Arts (Museums; 2400.

3rd Method South) (3 ), Holy Land Exhibition (Galleries; 434 Ridgewood Method).

( 4 ), Hennepin Background Gallery (2303 third Opportunity South) (5 ), Center for.

Early Understanding & & Living of the Sciences (Museums; 4139 Minister Opportunity.

North) (6 ), Aminah Hair Sytlist (Museums; 7500 69th Opportunity North) (7 ),.

Fridley Historic Society Museum (611 Mississippi Street Northeast).

( 8 ), American Wings Air Museum (2141 Rhode Island Avenue) (9 ).

Display/hide their approximate areas on the map.

Things To Do In Minneapolis.

Have a look at the Budweiser Roofing system Deck before heading pull back to the.

playing area. The scenic tour will take you with the history of the Twins.

team, highlighting previous and present gamers, excellent displays of.

baseball souvenirs, and also unique environmental attributes of the having fun.

field.

The display aims to establish important believing abilities via forensic.

examination, scientific query, as well as technology, by providing a.

multi-sensory experience where visitors can look into the globe of.

criminal offense scene examination.

St Paul Minnesota.

Enhancing the home-away-from-home ambience is a food selection full of.

sublime concoctions from mouthwatering lamb scottadito to pillowy.

pan-fried gnocchi surrounded in brittle Parmigiano Reggiano. Open up until 1.

a.m. on weekends, the area is always loaded as well as getting a table is not.

easy, however most definitely worth the wait.

Minneapolis Minnesota.

Pop, rock and indie music acts carry out, however it is not just arising.

artists as also bands with large followings will play two evenings at.

First Opportunity versus than one evening at a larger place. Significant skills that.

have graced the phase include the Indigo Girls, Tina Turner, The Black.

Eyed Peas, Economical Method, Phish, and also a lot more. A photograph with the wall of.

stars in the background is a must-do keepsake of Minneapolis.

. Kids as well as kids-at-heart will certainly like exploring these top 10 kid-approved.

quits in the Twin Cities. From epic dinosaurs as well as indoor.

water parks to roller rollercoasters and also four-story interior backyard, there's.

no scarcity of family enjoyable.

Including an universal collection of over 80,000 objects, covering.

5,000 years of globe background, the MIA is home to among the finest.

comprehensive art collections in the nation, containing exceptional.

exhibits as well as collections of art from Africa, Oceania and also the.

Americas, as well as a substantial collection of Asian art as well as sculpture.

Enchanting weekend break vacations near me, springtime break, positions to live: Orange.

Area Beaches, New Zealand Beaches, Fairbanks, Aberdeen, Providence,.

Lake George, Leesburg, Niagara Falls, Richmond, Virginia Purchasing, Ann.

Arbor, Sausalito, Morrison, Puerto Rico Beaches, Athens GA, Portugal.

Beaches, Zagreb Hotels.

23 Finest Points To Do In Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Found on the west bank of the Mississippi River, beside Gold Medal.

Park as well as the Mill City Museum in downtown Minneapolis, the Guthrie.

Theater has won many honors for its layout by Jean Nouvel and.

brings in visitors from around the globe to admire its architecture.

The cinema residences three movie theaters with a trademark ‘‘ thrust' stage, and also a.

78-foot cantilevered bridge called the "Countless Bridge.".

Background Of Minneapolis.

The piano on the luggage insurance claim degree in Terminal 1 is not simply for program.

Anyone is welcomed to play it; you may also be captivated by a.

expert musician or talented child while waiting for your baggage.

Wish to know the very best areas in Minnesota? How around pointers on just how to make.

the many of your time in a certain city? Our Minnesota specialists can.

address your questions, provide recommendations, or plan the perfect Minnesota trip.

for you. Absolutely free.

MSP has a main 1.4-mile walking course in Terminal 1, funded by.

the American Heart Organization. It's a healthy and balanced method to kill time on a.

stopover or to stroll off a few of that exquisite airport fare.

Points To Do In Minneapolis.

Everything concerning Manny's is larger than life, from oversized pieces of.

meat served with a collection of sides, to must-try decadent desserts.

The restaurant boasts a 300-bottle a glass of wine checklist, as well as extensive.

book list. If you are trying to find distinct day evening ideas in.

Minneapolis, this dining establishment is an excellent selection.

10 Reasons To Check Out Msp Flight Terminal.

The Pedestrian relaxes opposite the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, a sculpture.

park on the north side of the Walker School and is partnership between.

the Pedestrian and also the Minneapolis Park and also Leisure Board. Housed in an.

architecturally magnificent structure, the gallery is a must-visit.

Minneapolis' beginnings were as a mill community, very first handling wood, as well as.

then ending up being the biggest flour-producing city in the nation in the late.

19th as well as very early 20th centuries. Today the flour mills stand still, have.

been torn down, or transformed to trendy loft spaces, yet you can see a look of.

that time at the Mill City Museum on the financial institution of the Mississippi in.

downtown Minneapolis.

Two aviation-inspired backyard (one in each terminal) will maintain the.

youngsters occupied while you await your trip, as will certainly the.

delicious treats at Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. There's likewise.

private and deluxe nursing areas for households taking a trip with babies or.

mothers that require a peaceful place to pump, located in both terminals.

The home for the Minnesota Twins is at Target Field in the western side.

of downtown Minneapolis. The stadium is an al fresco ballpark and also. obtained appreciation from ballplayers and spectators for the seats, sights,.

environment, as well as giving ins choices. Participating in a video game is an ideal method.

to invest a balmy summertime night in the city before getting a drink or.

bite after the ninth inning in close-by downtown Minneapolis.

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As soon as you have actually subscribed, you get an essential or passcode, which you after that.

insert right into the required slot at one of the lots of bike stations throughout.

the city, obtain the thumbs-up as well as take your bike. You will certainly be given a.

certain amount of time to make use of the bike, according to your pass or.

membership, after which time the bike needs to be gone back to any.

station. As soon as the bike is secured right into the station, your secret or pass is.

gotten rid of, as well as you are excellent to go. Rapid, very easy and cost effective, it's the.

excellent method to check out the city at your very own pace.

Weekend trips, top 10 points to do, places to see near me: South.

Padre Island, Lexington,, Erwin, Floyd, Essex, Biloxi, Erie,.

Restaurants in Lancaster, Restaurants in Lake Tahoe, Realm, Eastham,.

Escanaba.

Sleep in before your return trip and remain on-site at.

the InterContinental Resort. The 12-story resort features a day spa, 2.

signature dining establishments, a penthouse cocktail bar and a cutting edge.

fitness center.

Things To Do In Minneapolis.

112 Eatery is an acclaimed downtown dining establishment that provides a laid-back.

setting, top-notch service, and extraordinary food. Acclaimed chef.

Isaac Becker has created this comfortable area where the wood floorings and.

subjected block wall surfaces appear like a comfortable apartment rather than a.

narrow restaurant, making it the perfect go-to place for a decadent supper.

or late-night bite.

Situated within the Shopping Center of America, the Nickelodeon Universe is the.

globes biggest interior theme park. The premises have greater than 50.

flights, appropriate for young and older children—— from looping rollercoasters, like.

Shredder's Mutant Masher, to even more mellow classics, like an antique horse.

slide carousel.

. Pop right into in your area started Aveda to sample some products, obtain a pre-flight.

change at The Chiroport, or sit back and take pleasure in a costs footwear sparkle.

You can even obtain a full mani/pedi, hair styling and also facial therapies at.

XpresSpa; no appointment essential.

Going back to the 1870s, the mill facility is detailed on the National.

Historical Area, playing a vital duty in the preservation and also.

education of the state's heritage.

Scuba diving accredited divers can take on the waters and also dive with sharks, while.

other visitors can take part in feeding times with stingrays,.

seahorses, and also rainbow reef fish. The fish tank offers an array of fun.

sea-based activities as well as experiences for all, consisting of stamp stations.

with dive books for youngsters, behind-the-scenes trips as well as over night.

keeps.

Charming places near me this weekend break, all inclusive, online music, one-of-a-kind.

purchasing around, night life for vacationers: Whistler, Shanghai, South.

America Cruises, New Zealand Cruises, Ireland Cruises, Winnipeg,.

Beijing, Paris resorts, romantic Niagara Falls, Things to Do in Ghent,.

Brussels, Nepal, Finest European trip, Arizona Day Trips, Cincinnati,.

Finest location to remain in Grand Teton, Adelaide.

Famous People From Minneapolis.

Started in 1963, the Guthrie Theater is a center for movie theater.

performance, production, education and also specialist training with the.

purpose of subjecting and also linking audiences to traditional literature as well as new.

works from varied societies around the world.

10 Reasons To Check Out Msp Flight Terminal.

Minnesota's growing local food scene greets site visitors as quickly as they.

touch down at MSP, where a number of Minneapolis-St. Paul's finest chefs and.

restaurateurs have opened store. Please your internal food lover with.

choices like coal-fired pizza at Black Lamb, fresh sushi at PinKU,.

regional craft beer from Rock Arch or a Tattersall craft mixed drink from the.

Mixed Drink Area at 18th & & Central.

Relaxing on the banks of the historic Mississippi Riverfront and also built.

right into the ruins of what was once the globe's biggest flour mill, called.

the Washburn "" A"" Mill, Mill City Museum is a tiny, intimate museum that.

presents birth and also development of Minneapolis as well as the succeeding background of.

the growing city with the flour industry as well as the river.

For foodies (and also those with food allergies) Bryant Lake Bowl provides.

locally sourced grub and also a gluten-free food selection. Looking for a task.

before playing a game? The connected theater to Bryant Lake likewise hosts.

every little thing from plays, local artists, and also even a weekly worship.

Minneapolis-st. Paul Location.

First Opportunity is a veritable icon of Minneapolis. As soon as the downtown.

Minneapolis Greyhound bus depot, the structure was redesigned in 1970 right into.

a live music place by ripping whatever out, including a stage, an audio.

system, and repainting the entire location black. The place has genuine.

songs cred— — Prince carried out here in the early days of his career.

Points To Do In Minneapolis.

The Double Cities' credibility as a center for arts is reflected throughout.

MSP. Numerous mosaics enhance both routs, the airport organizes an.

annual staff member art show and contest, as well as a triad of Snoopy statues makes.

for a fun scavenger search.

Resting and delighting in a fancy mixed drink is great—— finding out how to make that.

fancy mixed drink in the house is also much better. The experts behind the bar at the.

Norseman Distillery expose their tricks of the trade throughout classes at.

their Cocktail Lab each month. The sessions include hands-on.

directions, recipe cards, as well as 3 tastings.

The aquarium boasts a 1,500 gallon Pacific Northwest Rockpool where.

site visitors can check out unusual sea animals such as cucumbers as well as sea.

anemones by touch, in addition to a 300-foot glass undersea passage for.

extraordinary sights of sharks.

Minneapolis Minnesota.

Initially run by General Mills, the mill blew up and ignited.

several times during its working life. As soon as abandoned, a virtually.

disastrous fire damaged much of the mill. The Minnesota Historic.

Facility finally took charge of the remains, which were maintained and also a.

gallery was constructed inside the ruins. The gallery is among the finest areas.

to explore the history of Minneapolis.

Yearly Events In Minneapolis.

From hip youngsters to rich professionals, the amazing shops in Uptown.

Minneapolis organizes the facilities they like to constant. Chic bars,.

restaurants, and also stylish shops are gathered around the crossway of.

Hennepin Method and also Lake Road, the heart of Uptown Minneapolis. If.

people-watching is the goal, order a seat at one of the regional coffee.

stores as well as enjoy the ceremony of fashionistas passing by. The location is a.

number of blocks from Lake Calhoun, where the lovely people go to.

sunbathe in the summer, and run or rollerblade around the lake.

Destinations & & Activities.

Weekend trips, what is a terrific excursion location: Things to Do in.

Mauritius, Ukraine, Hong Kong, Myrtle Beach Day Trips, NY with Kids,.

Nevada with Children, Oklahoma with Kids, Day Trips from Omaha, Marquett,.

Greenbelt, Grantsville, Malvern, Hot Springs, Middletown.

Famous Individuals From Minneapolis.

The Minneapolis Institute of Arts is the major art gallery in.

Minneapolis, with pieces covering a number of centuries from all over the.

world. Works from antiquity through modern art fill this vast area,.

where it's simple to get lost for an entire day. The gallery has a range.

of special programs, ranging from attracting classes for kids to a.

weekly cocktail as well as art night each Thursday.

St Paul Minnesota.

Izzy's Ice Lotion is a gelato establishment, with shops in Minneapolis.

and St. Paul. Owned and taken care of by Lara and also Jeff Sommers, what started as.

a small kitchen area serving handmade gelatos has become the city's.

preferred ice cream area.

10 Factors To Explore Msp Airport.

"" New cool things to do in Minneapolis, Minnesota""

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servinglemonade · 4 years

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Must-do’s at Disneyland Paris for first-timers

Hey everyone. I really wanted to start a series of posts about DLP here on my blog. Giving you some tips, my favorite things to do, how to meet characters, etc. So first up is this one. Let’s start, shall we!

Illuminations

Make your day at Disney complete with Illuminations. This is Disneyland Paris’ nighttime spectacular! Enjoy beautiful fireworks with projections on the castle! If it’s your first time, you definitely want to put this on your list to see at least once. (I see it every night I’m there, but hey that’s just me). The best spot is obviously right in front of the castle. However, if you want this prime spot, be prepared to secure it up to 2 hours in advance. if you do not want to wait that long, there is always some room on the left and right side of the castle. I prefer the left side because fewer trees are blocking your view of the middle of the castle.

Top tip when Illuminations is over and you want a picture in front of the castle, wait a little bit for everyone to make their way towards the exit!

Stars on Parade

The parade is classic Disney. Disneyland Paris has the Stars on Parade. With beautiful floats, great music, and so many characters, you will not want to miss this one on your first trip to DLP! If you want a front-row seat, I recommend securing your spot at least 1 hour before the parade starts. The times of parade vary per season so make sure to check this in the Program times guide or the app. My favorite spot is at the beginning of the Parade route which begins at It’s A Small World.

Top tip get a snack if you still have to wait a long time before the parade starts!

Go inside the Sleeping Beauty’s Castle

Of course, we all know and love the castle, which is considered the most beautiful Disney park castle by many. However, did you know you there is a walkthrough of Aurora’s story with beautiful stained glass windows and tapestries inside the castle? When you walk over the bridge into the castle you can find the stairs on the left. Make sure to go outside as well for some great views of Fantasyland!

Top tip go underneath the castle for a surprise ;) (hint: think Maleficent)

Take pictures at Cinderella’s carriage

Just by Auberge de Cendrillon restaurant, you can find Cinderella’s carriage. It’s located just right of the entrance on the terrace. You can go there without a reservation at Auberge. It’s a great photo opportunity, so take your time getting that perfect shot! Sometimes right after or before a show, you can see the performers going or coming from backstage, so be on the lookout. You never know who you might see!

Top tip I just saw on Twitter that the carriage actually SPARKLES at night! So that would also look amazing in your photos!

Meet Mickey

I always say that a Disney trip is not successful if you do not meet Mickey Mouse. Walt always used the say that it all started with a Mouse! So I think visiting Mickey is always a must at any Disney park. You can meet Mickey at his fixed location Meet Mickey Mouse in Fantasyland. However, the line can get pretty long throughout the day. So if you really want to meet him, I recommend Extra Magic Time (only for Disney Hotel guests and Annual Pass holders) or at your earliest convenience. You can also meet him at several character meals like Plaza Gardens breakfast or Café Mickey. During the Lion King & Jungle Festival, you can also book a character lunch at Hakuna Matata where you can meet Mickey in his explorer outfit and Rafiki! (really recommend this one!)

Top tip If you are going in the coming months, you can also meet Mickey near Phantom Manor in his Phantom outfit!

Ride Phantom Manor

Speaking of... Disney World and Disneyland have Haunted Mansion, Hong Kong Disneyland has Mystic Manor and DLP has Phantom Manor. Experience the story of the Bride and the Phantom in this spooky dark ride full of amazing effects, a great story and incredible theming. The cast members here are great too because they really are creepy when they greet you. Usually, there is not that long of a wait for this one! So put this one on your list!

Top tip ride it when it’s already dark for an extra spooky effect!

Get a crêpe

This snack is a must in DLP. What’s more French than a crêpe? You can find it at numerous locations throughout the park. My favorite is the kiosk in Discoveryland. You have one with sugar (€3.29) and one with Nutella (€3,79). I always get Nutella, but I want to try the sugar one on my next trip so we will see which one I like better! So these are some of the cheaper snacks you can get in DLP and are well worth your money!

Top tip get one just before Illuminations! It’s a little tradition my sister and I have and there’s nothing better to be waiting for the fireworks with a nice snack!

Ride Crush’s Coaster

This is probably the most popular attraction in Disneyland Paris. After riding it just last year, I understand the hype! It’s so good and fun. This coaster can ONLY be found in DLP, which is why this is your chance to ride it. Go on an adventure with Crush and his friends all the way to the Australian current! With sharp turns, speed and lots and lots of spins. Yes, this is a spinning rollercoaster, so if you don’t like that, I would not recommend this one. Crush’s Coaster gets extremely busy from the moment the parks open for Extra Magic Time. I couldn’t ride it in 2018 because of a lack of time. So last year, this was a priority! I recommend getting to the Studios park at 8 and wait half an hour before it opens for Extra Magic Time. As soon as you are in, make your way towards the ride. You’ll have to wait, but it won’t be as long as the middle of the day. This ride does not offer Fast Pass (which can get you shorter wait time for numerous rides), it does have a single rider queue, but even that can get up to 40 minutes.

Top tip the queue and loading area of this ride is amazing. So look around you while standing in line and take it all in! You never know what details you can find!

Visit Disneyland Hotel

The Disneyland Hotel is the huge, stunning pink building you see just before you enter the parks. You don’t need to have a hotel reservation to go in! So make sure you do. The moment you step in, you can smell the infamous scent of this hotel. Every time I go in there, I breathe in so many times. It’s incredible (and yes, I am slightly obsessed with it, I’m aware I have a problem). You can walk around the lobby, go into the gift shop and go to Cafë Fantasia or eat in one of the restaurants! Another tradition of me and my sister is to go to Café Fantasia at the end of the day during the trip. We like to do this at least once when we are there. You can get some little snacks, cocktails, all sorts of wines and beers, hot chocolate and tea! It’s very relaxing here and the theming is amazing! Service is great too.

Top tip if you really loveee the smell as much as I do and you are prepared to pay money for it, you can actually take it home with you. You can either buy a scented candle (€40) or scented room spray (€60). It’s super expensive but so worth it. My sister bought the room spray and just after 3 sprays, the room is filled with the smell and actually lasts a few days!

Go to Disney Village

If you want even more shopping, have some good food or go to the movies, visit Disney Village! You don’t need to have a park ticket or hotel reservation, Disney Village is free for all! Most of the shops are open until 11 pm and World of Disney until 12 am (in the summer it’s 12 am and 1 am respectively). My favorite shops are the Disney Store, the Disney Gallery and World of Disney! Restaurant wise I have not eaten at a lot of them, but Café Mickey is great for some good food and meeting characters (it is expensive though and I haven’t done this in a long time). In recent years, I have been to Billy Bob’s La Grange a lot. It’s a great tex-mex buffet-style restaurant with a nice variety of food and lots of desserts! (Lemon meringue pie is excellent).

Top tip there’s also a Starbucks and McDonalds here if you want some breakfast or coffee in the morning. These open as early as 7.30 am!

So these are all my must do’s for Disneyland Paris!! I hope this post was useful to you. If you are going, I wish you the most magical holiday, whether it’s your first time or hundredth time!

Have a magical day!

Yenai

PS. My sister and I started an Instagram account with all things Disney! You can follow us @disneysreflection

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imgilmoregirl · 7 years

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The Bookshop Owner (Chapter 13)

AO3 Link - FF.Net Link

This chapter was revised by my amazing beta @ethereal-wishes

After they finished lunch, Belle guided them through the streets to the ice-cream shop, as she was the only one who still remembered the route. It had been a long time since she had last been there, but the memories attached to that place were so important, that it was impossible for her to forget. Belle seemed to be seeing past ghosts of them walking around every corner of that city, coming to haunt her and making her heart race.

The ghosts were at the pier, and the memory of Neal pointing at the seagulls was too fresh, just like it had happened yesterday. On the beach, she could picture the way she was happily gripping at Gold’s arm, trying to convince him to get to the water. And now, walking slowly to the shop, she saw herself kissing him when his son was not looking, right before little Neal asked for ice cream, and they discovered that wonderful place.

Glancing at Adam, she got the nervous look in his eyes, knowing that he was remembering about the same things. For a moment, Belle wanted to take Gideon’s arm off her shoulders and go to him, but they had already crossed a thin line earlier that day, and she didn’t want to give into another impulse that could ruin things again.

“So, this is the place?” Gideon asked when they stopped in front of the shop, looking at the glass entrance with a raised eyebrow. “I thought it would be bigger.”

“Don’t judge it for the size,” Belle replied, “it has the most wonderful ice cream in the world.”

Neal nodded, grabbing the doorknob and turning it. "She is right and I’m about to start trying.”

The boys quickly entered the shop, going straight to the showcase to see which flavours were on display as Belle followed then, holding the door open to let Adam in. There were only four tables there and three of them were already taken. Belle stood where she was, waiting for Gold to go after the boys, but he didn’t do it, instead, he kept staring at her.

“Did you like the restaurant?” he asked.

“Yeah, the food is spectacular!" She exclaimed.

At the sound of their awkward conversation, Gideon turned around. “Aren’t you coming?”

“I already know what I want, so I don’t have to choose,” Belle explained, before asking for the carrot cake one from the attendant. “What about you, Adam?”

He took a step forward, leaning on his cane, then he looked down at all the flavours ponderously. Belle get her bowl from the attendant, smiling at the dessert that she hadn’t ate in so long but was one of her favourites.

“White chocolate with strawberry,” Gold concluded.

“Really?” She questioned, “not carrot cake?”

A smirk tugged at his lips, “I intend to steal yours.”

“I’m not sharing,” Belle said with a grin, walking away to sit at the only vacant table.

It took them a moment, but Adam and the boys followed her, taking the other three seats. Neal was already eating his ice-cream, but Gideon glanced intriguingly between his parents.

“Don’t be selfish,” Gold told her.

“Alright,” Neal mumbled. “Now let’s see Gideon's reaction."

Gideon rolled his eyes at his brother’s expectant look, his brown eyes shining with an excitement that seemed completely pointless to him. He moved his plastic spoon to grab some of his carrot cake ice-cream, shovelling it into his mouth. Belle and Gold watched him as well, waiting for his reaction.

Gideon shrugged, “no big deal.”

“No big deal?” Neal repeated. “It’s the best ice-cream in the world!”

“It’s not," Gideon countered.

“It is,” his elder brother insisted.

“Can we please eat in silence?” Gold said, before taking some of Belle’s ice cream.

"Hey!" She protested.

"I've told you that I would steal yours," Gold remarked, batting his eyelashes playfully.

Neal rolled his eyes, shutting up and beginning to eat again. He ended up getting another two flavours, and as much as Gideon had complained, he did the very same. All Belle and Gold did was laugh, stealing each other's ice-cream like children would do, some people glancing at them skeptically.

None of them cared about that. They ended eating and went out, following the giant wheel's form to find the amusement park that Neal had talked about.

"Don't you think that you are too old for amusement parks?" Gold asked, gazing at the boys.

"Of course not," Neal said, shaking his head. He looked around the park and a tent arrested his attention, making him tap Gideon's shoulder and point at it with a movement of his chin. "I bet I can get a teddy bear before you do."

"And what are you going to do with a teddy bear?" Gideon inquired, furrowing a brow.

"Just give it to your mother," Neal shrugged.

"Oh, no way!" Gideon bristled, taking his wallet from his jean's pocket. "I am going to get it for her."

The two of them got in front of the tent that had some targets to be struck down with heavy yellow balls. Belle contemplated the sight, watching the boys talking with the owner of the tent as she bumped her shoulder against Gold's.

"They would have been competitive if they had grown up together," she replied.

"I think you're right," he parroted.

Gideon payed for the first try and got three balls. He threw them at the targets, one by one, but two of them missed it and the other didn't hit the target with enough strength.

"Loser!" Neal guffawed.

An expression of pure frustration crossed the younger boy's face. "Do better then, brother."

"I will," Neal said proudly.

Neal got the balls and made his try, but all of them missed the target, making him snort, and his brother choke back his laughter.

"Loser," Gideon coughed inconspicuously in his British accent.

Behind then, Belle didn't know if she should be as amused as she was with their little competition, but she never had siblings herself and always thought that it would have been good for Gideon to have grown up with Neal, even though she knew that it wasn't a possibility. She looked at Adam out of the corner of her eye, seeing him grab his cane more firmly and walk towards his sons.

"I'll show you boys how to do it," Gold said with a smirk.

"Oh, I want to see this," Belle giggled.

The owner of the tent was looking at them, like he definitely thought that this strange fierce determination, was some weird kind of family thing that seemed to have taken over all of them. Little did he know that he was actually right. Gold got his wallet and opened it, playing with the pounds which were hidden inside.

"I want a try," Gold confirmed, flashing him the bills.

"It's ten pounds, sir," the owner affirmed.

Raising an eyebrow, he slowly turned around, looking at the boys with an incredulous expression that made Belle want to laugh.

"You spent twenty pounds on this thing?" He asked with wide eyes.

Adam Gold had never let his son want for nothing, but he had a very defined idea of what was worth his money and what was not. Playing a carnival game at an amusement park was definitely not it.

"I paid with the money I receive when I work in the bookshop with mama," Gideon defended himself.

"You know I used your money," Neal mumbled. "I won't even try for an excuse."

"Ok, ten pounds," Gold said, rolling his eyes and passing the money to the man inside the tent and grabbing the yellow balls. "I'll get the freaking bear."

He had three tries and focused on the target, aiming the ball very carefully before hurling it. The first one, if intentionally or not only, Gold could say, passed very near the owner's head, making him jump and get out of his way, but the other two of them hit the targets, striking them down, causing a happy scream to leave Belle's mouth as she threw her arms around his neck, almost making them both fall to the ground. They would have if Gold hadn't grabbed onto the carnival stand's counter.

"Yes!" She exclaimed cheerfully.

"I can't believe it," Neal muttered.

"This is not possible!" Gideon whispered.

The owner swallowed hard, staring at them. "Which bear do you want?"

Belle took an attentive look at the stuffed animals, tapping her finger against her chin, contemplatively.

"The pink one," she announced.

"A pink bear?" Gold questioned as the game attendant handed the toy to her.

"It's cute," she shrugged, cuddling the stuffed animal.

"Bears are not pink," he countered.

"It is a stuffed animal, Adam, not a real one," she rolled her eyes. "However, thank you for getting this for me."

She felt his free hand coming up to stroke her backside, and Belle seemed unable to breathe. He was walking slightly unbalanced, struggling to keep her by his side as he used his cane to keep up on his feet, but it wouldn't have been more special if he could walk without it, like he did in the past, because their shoulders were brushing against each other with every new step and his hand splayed against her back, giving Belle a new kind of joy. The feelings bubbling inside her made butterflies swarm in her abdomen.

"Anyone want to go to the rollercoaster?" Gideon asked, excited for the first time since they arrived.

"I do," Neal replied.

Inhaling deeply, Belle nodded. "Let's do this."

"Really?" Gold gazed at her questionably.

"Really," she said with an encouraging smile. "Get ready to spend at least another ten pounds on this."

"Amusement parks," he grumbled, letting her drag him to the rollercoaster's line.

There was a monitor collecting the money and guiding the people to the cars. He allowed Gideon and Neal to enter the rollercoaster, but when he got to Gold and Belle, he took a long assessing look at his cane before deciding to speak.

"I'm sorry, sir, but you can't enter the rollercoaster with the cane," the attendant replied.

"Why not?" Gold inquired.

"We have a loop," he explained, pointing at the curved trails, "it could fall and hurt someone."

"Alright, since I'm not allowed to take it with me, I bet you won't mind holding it for a while," Adam answered with a grin, taking the toy from Belle's hand and passing it to him, along with his cane. "And take the bear too, please."

"But - " the man tried to speak, but Gold handed him the money and started to move in the direction of an empty car, leaning on Belle to avoid falling down.

"I don't believe you some times," she whispered, giggling girlishly.

"Neither do I," Neal agreed.

They spent most of their day there, and Belle had some fun going twice on the teacups. But when the afternoon was almost over, they found themselves sitting on a stool, looking tiredly at the amusement park. Gold suggested they go to a supermarket and buy some food, so he could cook dinner for them. Belle knew that he wasn't complaining because he was a very stubborn man, but his leg was probably sore by now after a long day of walking.

So, buying everything they needed at the first supermarket they found, the four of them headed home. Gold and Belle put away the food, while Neal and Gideon went to their rooms to take showers. Adam was excitedly talking about the meal he was going to prepare when his eldest son appeared in the kitchen.

"Hey papa, I forgot that I had promised my friend August a visit while I was in Brighton, so he called asking me to go to his apartment. Is it okay if I take the car?"

"Neal, this weekend was your idea," Gold accused, afraid of having to spend the rest of the evening alone with Belle and Gideon. "You can't possibly be backing out."

"I'm not backing out," he muttered exactly like Adam did, attempting to keep Belle from hearing what they were saying. "I'll take Gideon with me."

"Did you just say my name?" The boy asked coming downstairs in a pair of dark-blue pyjamas.

Turning back to see him, Neal smiled, tapping his brother's back. "Yeah, go change, I'm taking you to August's house with me!"

"Who the hell is August?" Gideon quizzed.

Belle looked up at the sound of her son's harsh tone. She was trying to pretend that she wasn't listening to their whispered conversation, but if Gideon was going to be rude with his father and half-brother again, then she would need to interfere.

"A friend from college," Neal explained.

"And why do I have to go visit him with you?" Gideon probed.

"Because you're my brother and we should do more things together," Neal answered.

Gideon, however wasn't buying that idea. He knew very well what Neal was doing again, trying to leave Gold and Belle alone for the thousandth time, in an attempt to see if things could work out between them, and he was pretty sure that they couldn't and shouldn't. But with his mother going to such great efforts to make him like these people, he decided that she should be the one to handle her own fate as he looked directly at her.

"Mama?" He said, clearly as an unspoken question that they both understood.

"You can go if you want to," Belle said, worrying her lower lip between her teeth. "It's your choice."

"Please," Neal begged.

Sighing, Gideon made his way back to the staircase.

"I think I'm going to regret it later," he muttered under his breath.

#rumbelle fic #mine #writing #rumplestiltskin #belle french #gideon gold #neal cassidy #fanfic #ao3 #rumbelle #ethereal-wishes beta #The Bookshop Owner

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tourguideexpert-blog-blog · 5 years

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10 of the best US road trip stopoffs readers travel tips

New Post has been published on https://travelqia.com/must-see/10-of-the-best-us-road-trip-stopoffs-readers-travel-tips-2/

10 of the best US road trip stopoffs readers travel tips

Anyone driving in the US will encounter kitsch diners and gaudy motels, but the roads are also lined with oddball museums and unique amusements New Testament mini-golf anyone?

Winning tip: Freight car motel, Pennsylvania

Visiting Amish Country on our road trip from Philadelphia to Chicago, we stayed in an old caboose (railroad wagon): the Red Caboose Motel in Ronks. The motel consists of a string of old carriages in bucolic countryside. On the farm beside our caboose we watched Amish men in wide-brimmed hats farming with old-fashioned tools; we bought produce from women in bonnets and long dresses, and waved to Amish children peering from buggies. The cabooses vary; larger units cater for families with bunk beds, whereas the smaller baggage car is more basic. Theres a dining car restaurant and even a honeymoon caboose with whirlpool bath. Doubles from $80 room only, redcaboosemotel.com bowbank

Florida island restaurant

Stepping into the Bubble Room on North Captiva island, off Florida, is akin to stepping into every dream of 1950s America. From the vintage toys inside glass tables, to mommas own cooking in the kitchen, youre overcome with the sights and sounds of this playful restaurant with a kitsch Christmas theme. The hardest part will be choosing which room youll eat your dinner in. Dinner mains from $18.95, bubbleroomrestaurant.com Anna Kilcooley

Hooked on barbed wire? Texas

Photograph: Mark Williamson/Getty Images

The Devils Rope and Route 66 Museum in McLean, just off the old Route 66, is housed in a former (underwired?) bra factory. Barbed wire was used extensively in ranching, and many of the 2,000 different patterns of wire, and the tools used to construct the fences, are displayed here. Not grabbing you yet? Theres also a photographic and textual history of the dust bowl (the 1930s period of dust storms caused by drought and poor farming methods) and cattle rearing. You can even buy barbed wire art, including some unique sculpture; and theres a section devoted to Route 66 memorabilia, including the original Big Texan Steak Ranch cow, an old motel sign. barbedwiremuseum.com fionachaillier

Gods golf course, Kentucky

Weve done our fair share of US road trips and often use roadsideamerica.com as inspiration for detours. The Bible mini-golf at the Lexington Ice Center, set in gardens with waterfalls and streams, was worth stopping at for sheer quirkiness alone. You can choose from three different courses, Old Testament, New Testament or Miracles, where youll find holes called Mount Sinai and Jonah and the Whale, for example. We played Miracles … its as underwhelming as you might imagine! lexingtonicecenter.com Chris0000

Classic roadside cafe, Montana

As you head south from the west side of Glacier national park, side-step the main US93 in favour of the scenic MT-35 which hugs the eastern shore of Flathead Lake and takes in cinematic Montana farmlands and landscapes along the way. Echo Lake Cafe in Bigfork is the perfect place to refuel. A classic American roadside cafe with a menu to match (lunch from $9.40), wooden booths, outside seating, excellent bottomless coffee, and impeccable service. Be prepared to queue up alongside the locals; its definitely worth the wait. echolakecafe.com VonBon

Kitsch amusement park, Indiana

Just south of Interstate 64 in Indiana youll find the bewildering, charming town of Santa Claus. Although the town features many Christmas-themed attractions, the main draw is the appropriately named Holiday World amusement park. The place is planned around four holiday-themed sections: Fourth of July, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas and is as kitschy and wonderful as it sounds. With amazing wooden rollercoasters and a superb water park, Holiday World is a must see if you ever find yourself driving through southern Indiana. Adult $50, children $40, holidayworld.com klo3912

Big Sur literary stopoff, California

Photograph: Alamy

The Henry Miller Memorial Library is on Highway One at Big Sur. It is dedicated to the renowned writer and describes itself as a place where nothing happens. In the winter its a beautiful spot where you can stop off and enjoy the stunning coastal surroundings, browse novels and enjoy free tea and coffee. During the summer it hosts a variety of cultural events from film screenings in the forest, to intimate gigs on a makeshift stage. For a man who said memorials defeated the purpose of a mans life. Only by living your own life to the full can you honour the memory of someone, Miller certainly has the most beautiful one Ive ever been to. henrymiller.org todayherenow

Wild west jailhouse, Arizona

We found this little corner of the wild west while driving through Arizonas Tonto national forest. Founded as a mining camp in 1875, remote Globe in Gila County has remained a real frontier town you can still find a few unique stores and old-time diners. Theres also the notorious Gila County courthouse, now the beautiful Cobre Valley Center for the Arts and the adjacent rather spooky Old Jailhouse. Globes history is laced with murders, hangings, stagecoach robberies, Apache raids, vigilante justice and links to the Clanton brothers of Gunfight at the OK Corral fame. Phineas Clanton married, had a ranch and is buried there. Jailhouse tours from Cobre Valley Center for the Arts Rachel Bloomfield

A desert oasis, Arizona

Rosies Den in 2010. Photograph: Alamy

We first stumbled across Rosies Den on the way to see the Great Wash (the westernmost part of the Grand Canyon). The exterior had a Bates Motel feel to it clapboard shack with fading paint, windows thick with desert dust, a disused pickup truck surrounded by tumbleweeds and a rather sad looking Joshua Tree emerging from a gravel pit. Inside, there were just a few wooden tables, one elderly server and a short counter, so we werent expecting much. Then the menus arrived. Between the four of us we ate steak and mashed potatoes, biscuits and country gravy, pancakes and eggs, a cheeseburger and fries, and lemon meringue, blueberry and coconut cream pie. Rosies has undergone many changes since. The original building burned down, then Rosie passed away, but her son rebuilt, landscaped and refurnished it. He extended the counter, installed a jukebox and hired more staff. New menu items were added and the place now sells cocktails. But Rosies still has a huge amount of nostalgic charm and good, homemade food. Its not just a roadside stop its a destination itself. On Facebook MelRoy

Giant hole, Arizona

Photograph: Tony Rowell/Getty Images

Meteor Crater is an enormous and well-preserved meteor crash site in the middle of the desert. Everything about the build-up to the crater the billboards, the gift shop, the museum is wonderfully kitsch, but seeing the 1.2km-wide crater itself is a surprisingly powerful experience. It is just a six-mile detour off Interstate 40 (which replaced the old Route 66) about 20 miles west of Winslow, and is well-signed – you cant miss it. The flat, dry landscape on this stretch of highway can be a little repetitive so this unique stop-off is certainly the best thing to break up the journey! At $18 entry this is a bargain be sure to walk the crater rim for the full experience. meteorcrater.com sw0001

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us

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notaliveuntilyourliving · 6 years

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Journaling: #1

So, I have always been one to write down all my thoughts and daily endeavors. but unfortunately, my dog enjoys eating journals. So, I want to start using this as my own journal and hopefully, my dog doesn’t decide to eat my laptop... (then again thank god the internet will never die) plus there is only like one person who follows me on here and actually keeps up with what I post. I’ve always been pretty wary about posting personal things on here and fully talking about myself and blatantly let it all. But I really want to utilize this as an outlet for myself because writing things down has always helped me. So on that note, the things on my mind today are just everything 2018.

So this year has honestly been one of the most accurate representations of a rollercoaster.... The things that happened back in January and February feel like they happened lifetimes ago. On January 20th, I lost one of my very best friends and beloved family members. If you can’t tell, I am an animal person. So, this soul that I lost is an animal, but not just any animal. He was my horse, Chester. Six years ago in the month of July, Chester came into life fully in the presence of love. Chester and I had a bond like no other. He is actually the horse in my profile picture. I still do not go a day without thinking about him. He was my calm during every storm for six years. He was my listener, my shoulder, and my happiness. I lost him to a rare tragedy that we never saw coming. Thankfully, we were surrounded by loved ones and supports during his last breathes and I was able to completely feel his love and appreciation until the very end. To me, this is still the hardest thing I have had to deal with all year. Selfishly, still above what happened in February.

In the middle of February on a crisp transitional winter to spring morning, I received a phone call from my dad. I could hear the sheer heartache in his voice. He proceeded to explain to me that my 20-year-old cousin lost his life after battling medical mysteries and still trying to enjoy his young life all year the night before. In shock, I still went into work. For months after the news, my family battled depression, suicidal thoughts, and anger even. We didn’t have his funeral until the weekend after my 23rd birthday. June seventh to the ninth, we spent days celebrating his life and trying our hardest to fill rooms with love. The morning we buried his ashes was one of the weirdest and hardest days. Saying goodbye to him and having to move on from that weekend in Antioch, IL was surreal. His mother, my aunt, still struggles with it every day.

In March, I made a decision to let go of a relationship I thought was going to last forever. It was all on me too. Through everything that was going with my family and everything I been dealing with (including not getting into grad school) I just couldn’t be in a relationship I didn’t feel was worth it. I loved him. I still love him. I still question if I made the right decision, but I can't go back now. I can never go back. and because of this, I lost touch with a best friend...

Recently, my family has been in the midst of dealing with crime. Two weeks my brother returned home from work to his front door slammed in and broken off the hinges and a knife on the floor. An armed robbery and thank god he wasnt home. This week my parents RV got stolen after having spent thousands trying to fix it at the shop. This morning I witnessed a shooting happen right outside my new neighborhood in Smryna, GA. I was leaving my complex to go the work. Going my usual route I drove to the main gate where I found about 20 cop cars. Exiting the gate, I usually go left, but there was a cop car surrounded by cops with their guns out blocking the road in that direction. unsure of what was going on and where I should (still do not know the roads that well) I waited. During that wait, about ten more cops came running out of my complex in pursuit of a shirtless black man running in the street. Within seconds, shots were fired at the man and I watched him get hit with bullets and fall to the ground. He was still moving and the cops yelled at him the “stay down.” I decided to go the opposite direction and find my around. If I was late to work, then hell I’m late to work. I think I just saw a man die. to me he was innocent at the time. I had no idea what happened the mintues before I drove up.. Later, I discovered this man was randomly firing a gun in the parking lot of my complex as if calling cops to him. Still unsure of what his motive was but after work I went to the leasing office to tell them what I saw. My statement was file din the incident report and my phone given if they have any questions. I’m scared to say the least. All day at work today, I found my heart racing faster if I heard a loud popping sound. I was barely apart of anything, but I was 20 feet from firing guns and watched a man get hit...

2018 has been nothing short of a nightmare but on a brighter note, it has been a definite path of becoming an adult and figuring out who I am all whilst working my dream job. Here’s to three more months.

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kenyannick · 6 years

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If I had my dream job I’d be at national parks every day, unfortunately our visits are limited to the weekends and we usually end up doing something we didn’t have time for in the week. It’d been a while since we’d been to a wild area and I was dying to go out and explore somewhere new and exciting.

I hit the internet looking for a new wild area to visit and after scouting all the green areas on google earth I found what seemed to be a decent sized national park called Khao Sip Ha Chan National Park. The name roughly translates to ‘The hill with 15 floors/ levels’ but after a little more internet sleuthing I found out it was the hill with 15 waterfalls. I checked with Carly and we agreed that the next free weekend we’d head out to see if it was any good.

Finally we had a weekend free of work, chores or any other weekend destroyers and we headed out to the park. It was a two hour drive away but as we got closer the dry rubber trees and pineapple plantations gave way to lush green jungle the likes of which I haven’t seen since we lived in the South and I was relieved to see the drive was worth it.

As we neared the main gate we began to see signs for wild elephants and I was beginning to get excited that we could actually see some cool wildlife at the park.

We payed our entrance fee (100 baht each) and began the drive from the main gate, through the jungle, to the second car park at the foot of the trail. We presented our tickets to the ranger and he lead us to a small notice board at the start of the hike. There was a map of the path that lead up to each of the fifteen waterfalls and back in a giant loop.

Below the map there was a warning which read:

‘The hike is 6km long’ (nice walk we thought)

‘Hikers are advised to wear suitable sturdy footwear’, (common sense, Carly was in Hiking shoes and I was in comfy trainers)

‘The hike takes at least 3-4 hours’, (we’ll have a slow walk and make it back in 4 hours)

The park ranger could not speak English so using our limited Thai we surmised that he was asking if we wanted a guide and he was telling us not to go off the paths. We told him in Thai don’t worry we don’t want a guide and set off down the path.

Not far down the path we noticed ranger was following us, must be because of the animals we thought, wouldn’t want to come too close to some wild elephants. A few minutes later there was the sound of a motorbike rattling up the rocky path and a new younger ranger joined us at the top of the first hill where the road stopped and the hiking trail began.

We introduced ourselves to our new hiking companion who was called Fang, he seemed nice enough and gave us space to explore by ourselves mostly. As we got deeper into the jungle the paths became harder to follow and Fang would have to point the paths out to us a lot of the time.

Despite having company we were enjoying the hike which was a rollercoaster of hills leading past each of the waterfalls. Soon there was no discernible path and Fang had to take the lead as we walked up the river through the jungle. Fang radioed in to his colleagues regularly at each waterfall we got to letting them know everything was ok which also let us know where we were as he’d say in Thai which level we’d reached.

Each waterfall was different and eventually we reached the 10th waterfall. I could not spot any path so I asked Fang where we were going and he simply pointed directly up at the waterfall. The confused look on my face prompted him to begin doing his best rock climbing impression. Gulp!

We climbed the right side of the waterfall with Fang in the lead doing his best to point out the best route for us and although it was quite steep we managed to make it up ok. Looking back down we were glad we wouldn’t have to come back down the slippery rocks.

So far our hike had been quite pleasant despite being almost all up and down steep hills. Unfortunately from this point on our hike began to become more, and more hellish, and here’s why…

The Path

We began to realise that not many people ventured up the waterfall this far as Fang was having to use his machete more and more to clear a path for us. The steep roller coaster paths were littered with fallen trees which created an awkward obstacle course we had to climb over or crawl under. Climbing under trees was the least of our worries though, as every waterfall after the 10th also involved climbing and each was progressively taller and more challenging than the last.

The Flora

On some of the steep hills there would be nothing to hold onto to help you up or down them. Surely there would be something to hold onto in the jungle you’d think, well you’d be right, there were lots of plants lining the path. Unfortunately some of these plants turned out to be rattan palms and snake fruit palms. If you don’t know these two plants, do me a quick favor:

Google ‘rattan plant’ or ‘snake fruit plant’ and you’ll see they are EVIL plants covered with three-inch long spikes that snap off in your skin when you bump into one or make the grave error of reaching out for something to stop you from falling.

The Fauna

Another aspect to our hike was the insects. It was too dry for leeches, instead we were swarmed by bees that were after the salt rich sweat that drenched our bodies. How they could stand the smell I have no idea, after 3 hours of hiking we were ripe!

It seemed like every branch was covered in small biting ants and what’s worse is they were on the branches on the sides of the waterfalls where you had no choice but to hang on and try to ignore them. Every time Fang cut through a dry piece of bamboo huge black ants would fall out on attack mode looking to exact their revenge on whatever they could find nearby……. usually us!

The arduous trek had taken its toll: the sole of my left shoe had detached, we had finished our water, our energy levels were waning fast and I was developing homicidal thoughts towards the incessant insect life.

Just when we were nearing breaking point we reached the penultimate waterfall and we began to see the light at the end of the tunnel. After this we’d be at the last waterfall and could begin the second half of the loop leading back to the head of the trail.

The 14th Waterfall was the highest yet and was 2-3 times bigger than the 10th and before we even asked I knew we’d have to scale it. I asked Fang to point out the route and this time his finger traced a zigzag up the right side of the waterfall and then through the waterfall from the right side, through the water to the taro plant (the one with heart-shaped leaves) on the left side of the waterfall.

I spoke to Fang and he told us that after climbing the waterfall there’d be more climbing after and the return loop was definitely more taxing than the trail we had taken so far. The rocks were slick with algae and we decided that it would be foolish to push any further and instead to head back down the path.

How the hell were we going to do all the steep waterfalls in reverse? Our spirits were broken, we’d been so close to the last level and now we were going to have to go back the way we’d come.

The first few waterfalls weren’t too bad to climb down but when we reached a waterfall and Fang took out the rope from his backpack we knew then, it was going to be challenging.

I made it down the waterfall ok and then stepped out onto rock which turned out to be slick with algae and came crashing down on my elbow. The impact sent a weird involuntary moan out of my lungs which Carly still teases me about. I found myself on my back in the river with a searing pain in my elbow and a very bruised arse. I manoeuvred myself into a more dignified position and gave my self a once over. I wiggled my fingers, stretched my arm out and everything seemed to be ok. Fang had come over at this point, probably to see where the dying animal was (Carly says the moan was really that weird) and sprayed something on my elbow which numbed it and then helped me up. I had to pay more attention, I was tired, and making stupid mistakes which was not helping.

Carly was the next to take a spill and landed awkwardly on some slippery rocks in the river twisting her knee and bruising her back and bum quite severely. It looked awful but she brushed it off as she always does but I could tell it had really hurt her.

We were both now sore, bruised and thoroughly fed up but thankfully we heard Fang radio in that we were at the 5th level and now he was on his radio more and more and we wondered what was going on, we heard a child’s voice so we guessed maybe he was talking to his son we’d seen back at the checkpoint near the car park.

Finally we rounded a bend and could see the very first hill we climbed. When we reached the top we saw 5 park staff all waiting with their motorbikes. This is why Fang must have been on his radio so much, we imagined he’d radioed in something like: “these Farangs (foreigners, in Thai) are dying you better pick them up with your motorbikes.”

We must have looked like we’d been in the jungle for weeks, our clothes were filthy from sliding down steep paths and waterfalls, the sole of my shoe was barely hanging on our pace would have fit in better in the walking dead than a Thai jungle!

We thanked the staff and tried to tell them we’d walk the last 15 minutes ourselves, we might as well finish, we’d come this far. The park staff looked at us in disbelief and insisted we get on the motorbikes. We thanked them but insisted that we’d finish the walk ourselves and began walking back down the path.

The staff passed us on the path and again offered lifts as they drove passed and we once again politely refused and they smiled at us and drove on.

We made it to the end of the trail after 6 hours of walking and we went to find Fang to thank him. We thanked him for his time and for the first time the whole day I noticed that Fang was looking a little fatigued, his face was flushed and hot and he was quite sweaty, I felt a little less pathetic now as even the expert was a tired by the hike.

We bought a few bottles of water from the small shop in the car park and sat down at a picnic table to drink them. We couldn’t help but laugh about how our relaxing weekend had turned out and how achy we’d be at work the next day.

This was one of the most hellish hikes I have done but it was a great reminder of what my body is capable of when pushed. Believe it or not I’d like to return to this park again not to walk to the entire trail but to explore more and take some more photos. The hilly hike meant that we’d had to have our hands free and the camera spent most of its time in the bag. These three butteflies are the only wildlife shots that we got that day.

Sullied Brown Sailor (Neptis nata goononata)

Harlequin (Taxila haquinus haquinus)

Magpie Crow (Euploea radamanthus)

So in summary, we had a hellish day but it makes for one heck of a story! We sweat, bled and almost cried but the feeling at the end of it all was one of accomplishment (and pain). Thailand never ceases to surprise us and I think after eight years of being here we’ve learnt to expect the unexpected, roll with the punches and go with the flow. Our lives are certainly more interesting for it and our bond with each other grows stronger with each crazy experience. TIT (This is Thailand 🙂 )

Jungle Hell If I had my dream job I'd be at national parks every day, unfortunately our visits are limited to the weekends and we usually end up doing something we didn't have time for in the week.

#adventure #chantaburi #hike #jungle #National Park #Thailand #waterfalls

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