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thelittlesttimelord · 4 years

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The Littlest Timelord: The Death of the Doctor Chapter 10

TITLE: The Littlest Timelord: The Death of the Doctor Chapter 10 PAIRING: No Pairing RATING: T CHAPTER: 10/? SUMMARY: The Doctor’s death is looming on the horizon and Elise is growing every day. What the Doctor doesn’t know is that he has 200 years to teach Elise all he knows. Amy, Rory, and River let Elise in on their secret, because River knows she will keep it. What will Elise do when he’s gone?

[A/N - We’ve made it to the double digits! I am so excited for the next chapter! I’ve got an emotional scene planned that will forever change the relationship between Elise and the Doctor.]

Elise watched as Amy paced back and forth.

“What's wrong?” Rory asked her.

“The most beautiful thing you've ever seen?”

“Oh, tell me I didn't really say that.”

Amy laughed at his embarrassment.

The first mate and the other pirate started to break down the barricade in front of the door.

“What's going on?” Amy asked them.

“We're not staying here to mollycoddle the boy. The Captain's gone soft. It's time for us to leave,” the first mate told her.

Elise and Toby stood up.

“He told you to wait, you dog. He's your Captain, a Naval Officer. You're honor-bound to do as he tells you,” Toby said.

“Honor-bound? Do you know what kind of ship this is? Do you know what your father does?” the first mate asked him.

Amy wrapped an arm around his shoulders and stroked the back of his head. “Don't listen to him, Toby.”

“We sail under the black flag. The Jolly Roger.”

“Liar! He's no wicked pirate!” Toby yelled.

“Oh, you think so? I have seen your father gun down a thousand innocent men.”

“Get what treasure you can. I'll meet you in the row boat,” the first mate told his fellow pirate.

Toby rummaged around and found a sword. “You're going to remain at your post,” he told them.

“I am not playing games with you, boy. You put that down.”

“One more step and I'll use this, you blaggard.”

Elise admired Toby’s bravery.

“You don't know how to fight with a cutlass, boy.”

“Don't need to, do I.” He swiped down and cut the first mate on the hand.

“No. You little swabber!”

“Congratulations. You made it to the menu. Probably shouldn't go out there now,” Amy told him.

“You scurvy ape!” The first mate pulled out his gun.

“Don't shoot. The powder will blow and kill us all,” Rory said.

The other pirate took the keys from the first mate’s belt. “Mulligan, what are you doing?” he said.

Mulligan left.

“No honor among pirates,” Amy said.

The first mate put down his gun and started to rebuild the barricade.

Elise wished she had her sketchbook or something with her. She was bored and wondering what was taking her father and Avery so long.

Toby, who sat next to her, pulled off the medallion around his neck and started to polish it with a piece of cloth.

Suddenly, there was banging on the door.

“Amy! Open the door!” the Doctor yelled.

“Toby, open the door! Toby!” Avery yelled.

Rory and Amy ran to the door to deconstruct the barricade.

The door opened the Doctor grabbed the medallion. He started to breathe on it, quickly clouding the surface. The Doctor ran out of the room with Avery following, leaving Amy, Rory, Elise, and Toby standing there confused.

They soon came back in.

“Now what?” Amy asked.

“Now we wait,” the Doctor told them.

“Just wait?” Rory asked.

“Not my most dynamic plan, I realize.”

“TARDIS?” Amy asked.

“It's been towed.”

“What?”

“Sorry. We might be stuck here for a while.”

“So you're saying that we should all just wait here below?” Rory asked.

“The sea is still calm, like a mirror. If you go out on deck she'll rise up and attack you,” Avery said.

“It's okay. The calm won't last forever,” the Doctor told them, “When the wind picks up we'll all set sail.”

“Until it does, you have to hide down here.”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Avery joined the Doctor and Elise up on deck.

The Doctor was teaching Elise about the stars.

Avery looked up at the night sky.

“It's not one star, it's two. The Dog Star, Sirius. Binary system,” the Doctor said.

“I use it to navigate the ocean,” Avery told him.

“I've traveled far, like you. Space can be very lonely, and the greatest adventure is having someone share it with you.” The Doctor looked down at Elise, who smiled at him. “

If we get out of this I'll take him back to England. He can't stay with me. I'm not the father he needs.”

“Who are you, Henry Avery? Respected naval officer, wife and child at home. How did you end up here, wandering the oceans with a band of rogues?”

“I've set my course now. Nothing I can do to alter it.”

“People stared at it for centuries and never knew. Things can suddenly change, when you're least expecting.” The Doctor patted Avery on the chest before he and Elise went down to the captain’s quarters. The Doctor stopped and looked at the windows he had smashed.

Elise looked at him and then looked at the windows. She got a prickling feeling at the top of her spine.

“Doctor? Elise?” Amy asked, coming up behind them.

“Shush.”

“What can you see?”

“Feels like something's out there, staring straight at me.”

There was a crash of thunder and then lightning.

“Man the sails!” the Doctor yelled, running up on deck.

Elise and Amy ran after him.

Soon, they were being pelted by rain.

“To the rigging, you dogs! Let go the sails. Avast ye! Put the bunt into the slack of the clews!” Avery yelled.

Amy and Rory ran to a set of ropes and started pulling on them.

“I swear he's making half this stuff up!” Amy yelled.

“Well, we're going to need some kind of phrase book!” Rory yelled back.

The Doctor stood at the wheel, directing the ship.

Elise clung to his legs.

“Toby! Find my coat. My compass is inside it, boy. Heave ho, you bilge rats!” Avery yelled.

“Rats was all I could hear!” Rory yelled back.

Toby came towards his father with the coat when a golden crown fell out and rolled across the deck.

The Siren shot out of the crown and flew up into rigging, before coming down to the deck.

“Don't let her take you!” Avery yelled.

Toby walked towards the Siren with his hand out.

“No!” Avery yelled.

Elise let go of the Doctor and ran towards Toby.

“Elise!”

She grabbed onto Toby as he touched the siren. Elise opened her eyes and found she was in a med bay, much like the one on the TARDIS. She’d only been once. She’d been sharpening her charcoals and sliced her hand open.

The Siren was hooking Toby up to machines as she ignored Elise. The Siren disappeared and a second later, appeared with Rory.

“Rory!” Elise yelled, running towards them.

The Siren turned red when she got near him.

“I’m sorry,” Elise told her. Elise stepped back and the Siren calmed down.

The Siren floated off to somewhere else.

A few minutes later, the doors to the med bay opened.

“Daddy!” Elise yelled, running towards him.

“Elise!” The Doctor caught her in his arms. “You’re okay.” He placed several kissed on her hair before he put her down.

“McGrath! He's one of my men,” Avery said.

“He's still breathing,” Amy observed.

“My entire crew is here. Toby!”

Amy spotted Rory. “Rory!”

“Toby!” Avery said, running over to his son.

“The TARDIS!” the Doctor yelled. He ran towards the plastic sheeting and threw it aside. He’d never been happier to see the big little blue box.

“We have to get him out of here,” Avery said.

“Wait,” the Doctor told him. He scanned Toby with his screwdriver. “His fever's gone.” He walked over to Rory and scanned him.

“He looks so well,” Amy said.

“She's keeping him alive. His brain is still active, but all its cellular activity is suspended. It's not a curse, it's a tissue sample,” the Doctor told her, “Why get samples of people you are about to kill?”

“Help me get him up.”

The Doctor started to unhook Rory from the machines.

They started beeping rapidly.

“She's coming,” the Doctor said.

Rory was starting to wiggle around on the metal bed.

The Doctor, Amy, Avery, and Elise hid behind some monitors as the Siren floated in. As she sang her song, Rory went back to sleep.

“Anesthetic”, the Doctor realized.

“What?” Amy asked.

“The music. The song. So she anesthetizes people and puts their body in stasis.”

The Siren floated over to Toby.

Avery stepped out with his gun raised.

“Avery, no!” the Doctor yelled.

Avery fired his gun and the Siren turned red like when Elise had tried to come near Rory.

The Siren advanced on Avery until the Doctor sneezed. The Siren produced a beam of fire between her hands as she came towards the Doctor.

Amy held Elise back from running over to him.

“Fire. That's new. What does fire do? Burn? Yes. Destroy? What else? Sterilize! I sneezed. I've brought germs in.” The Doctor pulled out a handkerchief. He sneezed into it before throwing it on the floor.

The Siren blasted it with fire.

Amy used this distraction and ran to Rory. The Siren started going towards Amy now.

“Amy, stop. Don't interfere. Don't touch him. Anesthetic, tissue sample, screen, sterile working conditions. Ignore all my previous theories!”

“Yeah? Well, we stopped paying attention a while back.”

“She's not a killer at all, she's a doctor!”

Amy stopped messing with the Rory’s tubes and the Siren returned to her normal state.

“This is an automated sick bay,” the Doctor said, “Its teleporting everyone on board. The crew are dead, and so the sick bay has had nothing to do. It's been looking after humanity whilst it's been idle. Look at her. A virtual doctor able to sterilize a whole room.”

“Able to burn your face off,” Amy reminded him.

“She's just an interface, seeped through the join between the planes, broadcast in our world. Protean circuitry means she can change her form, and become a human doctor for humans. Oh, sister, you are good.”

Amy reached for Rory and the Siren turned red again.

“She won't let us take them,” Avery said.

“She's keeping them alive, but she doesn't know how to heal them,” the Doctor explained.

“I'm his wife, for God's sake. Why can't I touch him?” Amy asked.

“Tell her, Amy. Show her your ring.” The Doctor grabbed Amy’s hand. “She may be virtual but she's intelligent. You can't do anything without her consent. Come on. Sophisticated girl like you. That must be somewhere in your core program.”

“Look, he's very ill, okay? I just want to look after him. Why won't you let me near my husband?” A tear fell from Amy’s eye and the Siren cocked her head to side.

The Siren held out her hand and a circle of light appeared around it.

“Consent form. Sign it. Put your hand in the light. Rory's sick. You have to take full responsibility,” the Doctor told her.

Amy did and the Siren disappeared. Amy turned off Rory’s life support and he immediately started gasping for breath.

“He can't breathe. Turn it back on,” the Doctor said.

She did and Rory went back to sleep.

“What do we do? I can't just leave him here.”

“He'll die if you take him out,” Avery said.

“Rory? Rory, wake up,” Amy cooed, stroking his hair.

“Where am I?” Rory asked.

“You're in a hospital. If you leave, you might die,” the Doctor told him.

“But if you don't, you'll have to stay forever,” Amy added.

“You're saying that if I don't get up now…?” Rory asked.

“You can never leave.”

“The Siren will keep you safe,” the Doctor said.

“And if I come with you?” Rory asked.

“Drowning, on the point of death.”

“I'm a nurse.”

“What?” Amy asked.

“I can teach you how to save me.”

“Whoa. Hold on.”

“I was drowning. You just have to resuscitate me.”

“Just?”

“You've seen them do it loads of times in films. CPR. The kiss of life.”

“Rory, this isn't a film, okay? What if I do it wrong?”

“You won't.”

“Okay, what if you don't come back to life? What if…?”

“I trust you.”

Amy looked at the Doctor who was walking over to Avery. “What about him? I mean, why do I have to be the one? Why do I have to save you?”

“Because I know you'll never give up. I know you can do this. Of course, if you muck it up I am going to be really cross. And dead.”

“I'll see you in a minute.”

The Doctor looked at Amy and nodded. He ripped off the restraints and Rory started gasping for breath.

Amy and the Doctor lifted him up and carried him into the TARDIS.

Elise walked over to Toby and Avery. “Goodbye Toby,” she said. She leaned down and placed a kiss on his hair.

“Take care of him,” Avery said.

Elise nodded, knowing he was talking about her father. Elise entered the TARDIS as Rory started coughing up water.

“Amy. Amy, you did it. You did it!” Rory told her. He sat up and they hugged.

The Doctor smiled and walked up the stairs to the platform. “Did you say goodbye?” the Doctor asked Elise.

She nodded.

“Don’t feel like talking?”

Elise shook her head.

The Doctor sighed internally. He missed the days when Elise was loud and outspoken. He hoped she found her voice soon.

#the littlest timelord #the littlest timelord: the death of the doctor #eleventh doctor #eleventh doctor imagines #eleventh doctor fanfiction #doctor who #Doctor Who fanfiction #doctor who imagine #amy pond #amy pond imagine #Rory Williams #rory williams imagine

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warninggraphiccontent · 5 years

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13 March 2020

Viral content

There's a definite theme to a lot of the links this week, unsurprisingly. I've also been keeping track of various useful pieces of advice from people used to remote working as coronavirus fundamentally changes how we work and live, whether in the short term or more profoundly - more on that next week.

But for now, here's an extremely useful tech handbook started by the team at Newspeak House, which has resources on everything from health advice and data about the disease, to advice on working remotely and tackling misinformation.

In other news:

We're doing a very quick project for Nesta on missing data in preventive services - looking specifically at children's centres and youth services. Here's the write-up of a workshop we did - thoughts very welcome.

My colleague Nick celebrated three years at the IfG with a terrible chart. Hilarity ensued.

I was very sad to see that Clare Moriarty, one of the most inspirational senior civil servants to those of us working around data and openness in government, is leaving the civil service. This speech of hers from last year is well worth a read.

I'd forgotten just how good the FT's 404 page is.

Delighted to hear the good people at Citizens Advice are finding inspiration in our dataviz. You may be less delighted by the puns that followed.

And a reminder that we're hiring someone to run Whitehall Monitor. A big thank you to Jukesie for including it in his indispensable jobs newsletter.

Have a good weekend

Gavin

Today's links:

Graphic content

Viral chart

A very short thread on the power of data graphics and scientific communication (Carl T. Bergstrom)

Spot the difference... (Rosamund Pearce)

Everyone's job is to help FLATTEN THE CURVE (Dr Siouxsie Wiles)

Coronavirus: How peak of cases could be cut by 'social distancing' (Sky News)

How canceled events and self-quarantines save lives, in one chart (Vox)

It’s not exponential: An economist’s view of the epidemiological curve (voxeu.org)

Viral content

17 responsible live visualizations about the coronavirus, for you to use (Datawrapper)

Illustrative simulations of a transmission model of COVID-19 (The Lancet)

COMMUNICATION THEMES FROM CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK (Visualising Data)

COVID-19: Research in Uncertain Times (Ipsos MORI)

In America, even pandemics are political* (The Economist)

Foot traffic has fallen sharply in cities with big coronavirus outbreaks* (The Economist)

Die Schweiz liegt auf Platz 6 der am stärksten betroffenen Länder – alles zum Coronavirus in 14 Grafiken (NZZ)

9 charts that explain the coronavirus pandemic (Vox)

Right or wrong, there’s no doubt the UK is increasingly an outlier in our Covid response (BBC Newsnight)

Soap is such an ordinary thing. Can it really kill a virus? (YES! Now wash your hands) (Prof Lucy Rogers)

From coronavirus to bushfires, misleading maps are distorting reality (First Draft news, via in other news)

Coronavirus: UK maps and charts (BBC News)

How Coronavirus Hijacks Your Cells* (New York Times)

How Deadly Is Coronavirus? What We Know and What We Don’t* (The Upshot)

Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) (Our World in Data)

Total UK cases COVID-19 Cases Update (Public Health England)

Coronavirus Data Pack (Information is Beautiful)

Wie das Coronavirus nach Deutschland kam (Zeit Online)

COVID-19 MAP (/r/CovidMapping, via Pritesh)

How the World’s Largest Coronavirus Outbreaks Are Growing* (New York Times)

Exponential growth and epidemics (3Blue1Brown)

I’m no epidemiologist, but I am a #dataviz specialist, so here are some thoughts on coronavirus and log scales (John Burn-Murdoch, via Marcus)

When Everyone Stays Home: Empty Public Spaces During Coronavirus (The Atlantic, via Benoit)

#IWD2020

International Women’s Day 2020: Close to three in ten men say sexual jokes or stories at work are acceptable (Ipsos MORI)

Americans overestimate voters’ prejudices against women and ethnic minorities* (The Economist)

What do we know about gender inequality in the UK? (ONS)

Cabinet and civil service gender balance (Ketaki and me for IfG)

Seven in ten support equal coverage for women’s sport, but not at the cost of men’s coverage (YouGov)

A dozen+ visionary pioneers who did great (and good) things with data visualization (RJ Andrews)

Would making salaries public help end disparities?* (FT)

#Budget2020

The budget in charts - Tom, Graham (IfG)

Spring Budget 2020: IFS analysis (IFS)

The Stupidest Budget of All Time* (Tortoise)

Spring Budget 2020 response (Resolution Foundation)

Life and death

Why we run (Strava)

Diabetes risk: what’s driving the global rise in obesity rates?* (FT)

How Working-Class Life Is Killing Americans, in Charts* (New York Times)

Middle-aged generation most likely to die by suicide and drug poisoning (ONS, from 2019)

Changing trends in mortality by leading causes of death, England and Wales: 2001 to 2018 (ONS)

Mortality and life expectancy trends in the UK (The Health Foundation)

Everything else

Political trust (Will Jennings via Alex)

British Election Study 2019 Data Release – Internet Panel, Results File, and Expert Survey

Ministers (me for IfG)

Political protests have become more widespread and more frequent* (The Economist)

Getting moving: Where will transport infrastructure investment unlock city-centre growth? (Centre for Cities)

45 Minute Cities (Alasdair Rae)

National Primary Results Map: Where Biden and Sanders Have Won* (New York Times)

Joe Biden’s surge poses threat to Bernie Sanders’ US primary hopes* (FT)

Meta data

Viral content

Five ways coronavirus could shape our digital future (Jonathan Tanner for the Overseas Development Institute)

Coronavirus divides tech workers into the 'worthy' and 'unworthy' sick (The Guardian)

Coronavirus: A Digital Governance Emergency of International Concern (CIGI)

Fact Check Explorer: Coronavirus (Google)

NHS announces plan to combat coronavirus fake news (The Guardian)

Facts on Coronavirus (Full Fact)

Sifting Through the Coronavirus Outbreak (Mike Caulfield)

The Simplest Way to Spot Coronavirus Misinformation on Social Media (OneZero)

CORONAVIRUS and HAKKAR THE SOULFLAYER'S CORRUPTED BLOOD! Or what do people actually do in a pandemic? (Alex Krasodmoski)

On TikTok, coronavirus is just another way to gain clout* (New Statesman)

Chinese social media sites blocked medical information about the coronavirus, research indicates (Poynter)

Boris Johnson Has Summoned Major Tech Companies To Downing Street To Help In The Fight Against The Coronavirus (BuzzFeed)

Inside Dominic Cummings’s coronavirus meeting with big tech* (Wired)

How a global health crisis turns into a state-run surveillance opportunity (The Observer)

CIO interview: Sarah Wilkinson, NHS Digital (Computer Weekly)

#OpenDataDay

Celebrating the tenth Open Data Day on Saturday 7th March 2020 (Open Knowledge)

Celebrating Open Data Day around the world (Open Knowledge)

What is ‘open data’ and why should we care? (ODI)

What @instituteforgov is able to do with #opendata (IfG)

#opendataday, #ODD2020, #OpenDataDay2020

#Budget2020

Peter Wells

Owen Boswarva

What Works Centres

Digital markets taskforce: terms of reference (BEIS/DCMS/CMA)

If we want cutting-edge R&D, we must rethink our attitude to failure (Hetan Shah in City AM)

#IWD2020

In a world biased against women, what role do algorithms play? (CDEI)

Mapping Gender Data Gaps: An SDG Era Update (Data2X)

Why cars are unsafe for women* (Caroline Criado Perez for the Sunday Times)

Why the web needs to work for women and girls (Sir Tim Berners-Lee)

International Women’s Day: celebrating the black women tackling bias in AI (Ada Lovelace Institute)

UK government

The UK’s national data strategy is still missing in action (New Statesman)

Does Brexit Britain have a data strategy fit for purpose? - the public sector perspective (diginomica)

Price and prejudice: automated decision-making and the UK government (podcast) (openDemocracy)

The UK Has Slumped in Open Data Rankings: This Should Trouble All of US (Jeni Tennison in Computer Business Review)

MANUFACTURING THE FUTURE: COULD HEALTHCARE DATA HELP REBALANCE THE UK’S ECONOMY? (Reform)

Designing an Information Governance approach for London (LOTI)

Case for helping join up government services (GDS)

MPs told to hold to account those responsible for Post Office Horizon IT scandal (Computer Weekly)

UK.gov is not sharing Brits' medical data among different agencies... but it's having a jolly good think about it (The Register)

The UK’s tech sector has much to be optimistic about (Matt Warman MP for CapX)

I’ve written a bot @UKreleases that tweets out all the transparency releases governments departments post on http://gov.uk (Jon Stone)

At least 20,000 people denied information that could prove right to live in UK (The Independent)

DCMS to examine government data-sharing barriers ahead of programme of ‘radical and transformative change’ (Public Technology, via Colm)

We’re hosting a community meet-up to discuss how we archive data (Technology in Government)

Harnessing the potential of linked administrative data for the justice system (ADR UK)

AI, IoT, tech, etc

AI needs more regulation, not less (Brookings)

AI In Policing: Better Than A Knife Through The Chest? (Forbes)

Better intelligence about artificial intelligence (Nesta)

Reset (Luminate)

IoT Week[note 32] (LOTI)

Everything else

David Hand on Dark Data (Princeton University Press)

We Built a Database of Over 500 iPhones Cops Have Tried to Unlock (Motherboard)

The Robots Are Coming: Ethics, Politics, and Society in the Age of Artificial Intelligence (Kenneth A. Taylor, Boston Review)

How our network is considering data ethics: survey results (ODI)

Researcher danah boyd on how to protect the census and fix tech (Protocol)

How close is humanity to destroying itself?* (The Spectator)

Stealth political ads flourish on Facebook* (Politico)

#NICAR, #NICAR2020

William Gibson on the apocalypse: “it’s been happening for at least 100 years”* (New Statesman)

A Dataset is a Worldview (Hannah Davis)

Centre Write: Digital disruption? (Bright Blue)

Facebook sued by Australian information watchdog over Cambridge Analytica-linked data breach (The Guardian)

Frontex hits activist pair with €24,000 legal bill (EUobserver, via Giuseppe)

A catalogue of things that are stopping change: part II (Rose Mortada and James Reeve)

Opportunities

JOB: Senior Researcher - Whitehall Monitor (IfG)

JOB: Data Journalist / Research Analyst (Spend Network)

JOB: Team Lead - Data Technology (Data Unit) (DfT)

JOB: Policy Fellow (Digital Technology) (The King's Fund)

JOB: Data Science Campus Delivery Manager (ONS)

JOB: Social Media and Engagement Journalist (FT)

JOB: Partnerships and Community Manager (Understanding Patient Data)

JOB: Head of Public Policy (ODI)

JOBS: Good Things Foundation

EVENT: Digital Insight and Business Intelligence in Local Gov 2020 (London Borough of Redbridge and techUK, via Martin)

And finally...

Love in the time of quarantine

I made a graph of old relationships... (Jeremiah Lowin)

BETWEEN THE SPREADSHEETS (1843, via Alice)

I Work from Home (The New Yorker, via David)

Pi Day tomorrow

How a farm boy from Wales gave the world pi (The Conversation)

Even After 31 Trillion Digits, We’re Still No Closer To The End Of Pi (FiveThirtyEight)

Pi Day: How One Irrational Number Made Us Modern* (New York Times)

A colorful π chart (Datawrapper)

Everything else

What's your beverage of choice? (Jess Walker)

Cognition (Steve Stewart-Williams)

This is the scale of the universe (How Things Work)

0 notes

accuhunt · 7 years

Text

How to Find the Perfect Airbnb and Make the Most of Your Travel Experience.

I often wonder what makes a travel experience truly unforgettable. Take my recent trip to Georgia (the country) for instance. When our plans to travel to the remote Tusheti region got snowed on, we decided to visit a forgotten protected reserve near Georgia’s border with Azerbaijan and the Dagestan province of Russia. I was recovering from a flu, and even on a sunny day, wrapped up in layers and a warm hat.

“Cold?” Otto, our potbellied, jolly Georgian host asked me. I solemnly nodded.

He turned to search for something in the shelves of his outdoor kitchen shed. I tried to tell him I had already taken medicine, but he wouldn’t stop.

He finally found what he was looking for. A bottle of homemade chacha – a strong plum liquor ubiquitous in Georgian households.

“Chacha very good,” he said, even as I resisted it at first. Then we cheered to India, Georgia, family, religion (even if mine is atheism) and good health, and downed shot after shot.

With my Georgian host Otto.

I guess the flu, hiking to the waterfalls in the protected reserve, my friend’s tumble into a glacial river and all the homemade jams we ate for breakfast will gradually fade away in my memory. But I’ll never forget sitting in that little shed by the garden, surrounded by grape and plum vines, the warm sunlight pouring in through cracks in the tin roof, drinking chacha with Otto.

So if you ask me, the most unforgettable travel experiences are the ones that push us beyond our comfort zone, happen outside of planned itineraries and immerse us in the local way of life. And for that reason, I’ve sworn by Airbnb in my last three years of traveling.

My dreamy Airbnb in the Caucasus Mountains.

Here are all my tips and tricks on how to find the perfect Airbnb when you travel:

Think about the kind of experience you’re looking for

The thing about traveling is, one size doesn’t fit all. I might love spending time in an obscure little village deep in the mountains and you might love the vibrant night life of a city. I might love slow days with no plans and you might love road tripping from town to town. The good news is that accommodations on Airbnb tend to offer a rather vast range of experiences – from swanky apartments with a kitchen (ideal for a long stay), to a homely room with a local family (great for local insights), to a unique mountain lodge that is an experience unto itself.

Before I even start looking at Airbnb, I think about what kind of place I’m keen to stay at. If I’m merely passing through a city, I prefer to stay centrally and don’t care much to find a host who’d be very involved. On the other hand, if I’m slow travelling through, let’s say small-town Italy, I’d look for a quiet place with beautiful surroundings, ideally with a host who would be open to conversations and sharing a glimpse of the local life. Before you begin your research, take a moment to think about what you really want from your trip.

Read: Why Long Term Travel is More Like Real Life and Less Like Instagram

A charming home to slow down, in Addis Ababa.

Browse on the Airbnb map

Typically when you search for a destination on Airbnb, the most reviewed accommodations show up on the first few pages. Unexpected gems can often remain buried on further pages. To get around this, I use the map feature that accompanies accommodation search. By checking a box under the map, I ensure that search results change in real time as I move or zoom into the map.

On my Sri Lanka trip last year, I knew I wanted to stay in the hill country, yet not in the busy town of Kandy. So I zoomed into the map, but away from the cluster of Airbnbs in Kandy, till I found one isolated Airbnb on the shores of the magnificent Victoria Lake – it turned out to be one of the most stunning Airbnb experiences I’ve had yet. On the other hand, while looking for an Airbnb in Colombo, I had no idea which part of the city I wanted to stay in. So I moved the map around, looking for green areas not too far from the city centre, and ultimately found College House in a neighborhood I had never heard of before.

The point is, the map feature allows you to find Airbnbs away from the tourist action (or in the middle of it, if that’s your thing), and often in small towns and villages that might not be on your radar otherwise.

Read: 7 Epic (yet affordable) Airbnbs to Stay in Sri Lanka

Waking up in a wine barrel bed in Ljubljana!

Use filters to shortlist accommodations

Just like the map feature, filters make it much easier to find your perfect Airbnb experience. During a typical search, I choose the following filters:

Entire place or private room. I’m not one for sharing a room, like ever.

Wireless internet. Because, digital nomad

Kitchen, if I intend to stay longer than a week.

Superhost, just to get an idea of the top-rated accommodations at my destination.

I almost always use the price filter too, but I usually keep the upper range 10-15% higher than my actual budget, since it’s often possible to get a discount on weekly and monthly prices, off-season travel and solo occupancy.

Read: How I Conquer My Solo Travel Fears

Sleeping under the stars, on the roof of my Airbnb in Mauritius!

Read reviews of past travellers

Once I’ve shortlisted 5-10 accommodations, based on the kind of experience I’m looking for, location on the map, amenities and price filters, I start reading the accommodation and host description, and looking at photos. Over the years though, I’ve learnt to take photos with a pinch of salt – they often tend to be edited for perfect light. I try to ignore artistic photos, and analyze instead how spacious the room looks, whether the surrounding area offers natural beauty, and most importantly, if the bathroom looks clean and modern enough. The last thing I want on my travels, is to pay to stay in a dingy room with a filthy bathroom – which has happened by the way.

But what I rely on most are the reviews of past travellers. I look at what aspects of a place most reviews tend to praise – the hospitality of the host, the location, the surroundings or the room/apartment itself – and assess if those are the ones most important for me. I pay close attention to anything negative, especially if it concerns cleanliness.

Read: My Worst Travel Memories

An eagle’s eye view on Lake Atitlan (Guatemala) from my balcony.

Manage expectations with your host

I think the best part about Airbnb, as compared to other accommodation websites, is that you can have a conversation with your host before you book. I always do that, asking questions that are unanswered in the description, like whether I’ll be able to get around without a car, my options for food (and the availability of vegan food), if there are hiking or cycling trails and other activities to keep me busy for a while, and if the internet usually works well. Asking such questions also gives the host an idea of what I’m looking for from my stay, and such discussions have often led to hosts going out of their way to create experiences for me.

On the Croatian countryside for instance, I stayed at an Airbnb with little public transport connectivity. My hosts not only picked me up from the train station, but also invited me on their day off to show me their favorite spots along the Istrian peninsula!

Read: Dreamy Airbnbs to Experience Europe Like a Local

With my Quichua host family in Ecuador.

Remember you’re not in a hotel; be a mindful guest

Time and again, my Airbnb hosts have gone beyond a business relationship to invite me into their lives. Many of them became good friends over the course of my stay, some invited me to come back and stay as a personal guest, others I still keep in touch with and hope to see again. But these relationships are always a two-way street.

When I arrive at an Airbnb, I remind myself that I’m not in a hotel but in someone’s house. If the host is up for it and I haven’t had a very long journey, I try to keep my first hour or so for a get-to-know-each-other conversation. These conversations often reveal amazing personal stories and great recommendations in their neighborhood. I keep myself open to tea or meal invites, or join my host for a day out, but never try to impose on their lives. I try to be accommodating, ask politely for anything I need (just like I would in a friend’s or relative’s house), and make sure I adhere to the house rules and keep my space clean. Little gestures go a long way.

Over the course of my travels, I’ve realized that most Airbnb hosts are not in it just for the money. They are people like you and me, who love to travel and share their part of the world with those passing through.

Read: How I’m Funding My Adventures Around the World Through Travel Blogging

An incredible Airbnb abode in Himachal <3

Leave an honest review

I’ve heard some travellers say they feel frustrated with Airbnb because the reviews sometimes seem too positive – travellers are worried about hurting the hosts’ sentiments after building a personal connection with them. I understand their frustration, and believe it’s up to each of us to keep the Airbnb spirit alive – by being honest.

On my part, I ensure that my Airbnb reviews are as helpful as possible, without being too flowery or brutal. I highlight aspects of the place I loved, and those I believe could’ve been better. Genuine feedback can enable hosts to offer better experiences, and manage expectations for future travellers.

After all, we have to rely on each other, the travel community, to discover travel experiences that are truly unforgettable.

Do you use Airbnb on your travels? Any tips on how to find the perfect place to stay?

I wrote this post in collaboration with Airbnb India. If you haven’t used Airbnb before, sign up with my referral link to get 18$ off your first stay, and use it to find local experiences the world over.

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How to Find the Perfect Airbnb and Make the Most of Your Travel Experience. published first on http://ift.tt/2w0EToM

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ejgiftcards · 7 years

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Gift-Giving Culture: How Did We Get Here?

An Examination of the Historical, Cultural, and Economic Underpinnings of Gift-Giving around the Holidays

If you grew up in the United States, you almost certainly can recall the traditions of Christmas from your childhood. For millions of Americans, this season represented goodwill, community, and heavy doses of that jolly man in the red suit. And regardless of culture, creed, or religion, this season also represents the excitement and expectation of gifts; indeed, over 92% of Americans recognize Christmas in some way, and an overwhelming majority of them associate the holiday with gift-giving.

Because this has been the typical experience for so many Americans, it has become almost axiomatic in nature—we celebrate Christmas this way because we celebrate Christmas this way. But if we take a step back and remove ourselves from the influence of interpersonal subjectivity, we can see a rather interesting cultural rite of passage worth further examination. Why do we celebrate Christmas this way? And how has this perspective impacted our tradition of gift-giving?

First off, Who is this Santa Guy?

The Yule Lads. Tomte. Belsnickel. La Befana. Krampus. Father Christmas. No matter where you are in the world, legends abound concerning mythical men or creatures that handle gift-giving responsibilities, primarily for the benefit of the children of this society. Their styles may differ—Father Christmas is typically represented as a benevolent patriarchal figure, while Krampus is represented as the proverbial stick for the “naughty list”—but regardless of differences, they tend to coalesce around a host of shared characteristics in a similar time of the year.

According to researchers at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), the American version of Santa Claus is largely attributable to the St. Nicholas figure of historical Turkey. In fact, St. Nicholas was originally the figurehead for an entirely different holiday—St. Nicholas Day on 6th of December—but over time, he was culturally melded into the Christmas Day ethos. This migration also brought over many of the gift-giving traditions previously associated with St. Nicholas Day. The average celebrator of Christmas would be shocked to discover what Dr. Michael Laver, History Chair and Associate Professor, consistently states from his research: Christmas Day wasn’t associated with gift-giving until this merger, and much of the growth of commercial side of the holiday was driven by the early development of large department stores in newly urbanized sections of early 19th century American cities.

What About That Red Suit?

The research conducted at RIT and confirmed elsewhere has shown us some of the gift-giving roots of the holiday, but where did our visual of Santa come from to begin with? Your snarky friend on the Internet will probably tell you that he was invented by the corporate minds at Coca-Cola to help sell more soft drinks in the downtime that was winter for the company. While this is a fun theory, it falls a bit short: we have evidence of the jolly man with the red suit and white beard going all the way back to 1906, about 30 years before Coca Cola started associating their famous soft drink with the guy. But their coopting of the character certainly helped the culture coalesce around the singular concept of the man in the red suit. To that point, there had been multiple competing versions of the visual concept, ranging from green suits to laurel crowns. The Coca Cola campaign certainly acted as an accelerator for the cohesion around the modern Santa, but they didn’t invent it within their corporate headquarters. It evolved culturally over generations to the Tim Allen-version we grew up with in the United States.

What Does This Leave Us With?

The researchers at RIT expanded their work beyond Christmas to examine the broader fundamentals of gift-giving culture and expectations of reciprocity. They examined Japanese cultures of gift-giving alongside Mexican traditions among the Yucatec Maya, and compared their findings to the original academic investigations of Marcel Mauss, a French anthropologist and sociologist. Their findings showed global similarities in gift-giving traditions and expectations of reciprocity.

According to Dr. Kray, we can expect these gift-giving holidays to be around for quite a while. “Every Christmas, people feel overwhelmed with the pressures of gift-giving,” she stated. “I know that it’s something that people feel a lot of stress about, but it’s an obligation we can’t get out from under without changing relationships. A sense of obligation can be incredibly powerful. I think that once a gift-giving tradition has been set, it’s very hard to break that tradition.”

To put it another way, most Americans don’t see the fluidity and relatively arbitrary nature of Christmas gift-giving to be a reason to not engage in the behavior. Indeed, most Americans feel the pressure Dr. Kray talked about during every holiday season, but love to continue on with the traditions and rituals they grew up with anyways. But regardless of our desire to continue giving and receiving gifts, are we able to do it particularly well?

Our Gift-Giving Issues

Gift-giving is important. It has evolved culturally to become a critical component of human interaction, serving as a vehicle for defining relationships or reinforcing bonds among family and friends. But on an individual level, it always seems to spark a common bout of anxiety: does this person really want this thing?

Research gives us a pretty definitive answer to this basic question. According to a 2014 study in the Journal of Consumer Research, we’re pretty bad at gift giving. Like, really bad. And the primary reason? We spend too much time thinking about sentimentality instead of giving that person exactly what they asked for. We really want to see our friends and family light up with excitement at the reception of a totally unexpected yet desirable gift. This is certainly an admirable goal, but the problem breaks down as follows:

Gift-givers have to decide between the desirability of a gift (i.e. the price of a blender, the class of a restaurant, etc.) and the feasibility of the gift (i.e. how easy it is to use the blender, how practical it is to get to that restaurant).

Gift-givers often come down in favor of the desirability of the gift. They view the quality of the gift as the primary characteristic to consider.

Gift-receivers more often favor feasibility. They’d prefer a simpler blender that’s easy to use in comparison to a world-class model that is complicated and difficult to maintain.

The good news is that we seem to be learning as a culture about how to give appropriate gifts. Decades ago it could have seemed gauche or untoward to tell people exactly what you wanted for a holiday or celebration, but it’s far more commonplace in our gift-giving traditions of the present. This can best be seen by the growth in the gift card industry. According to a recent study, the US gift card industry stands at $129 billion today, increasing by around 6% per year. Digital gift cards are the primary mover within that space, growing at a rate of nearly 200% per year.

This all makes a tremendous amount of sense when considering the aforementioned research as well as approval rating disparities: only 25% of Americans report being pleased with their Christmas gifts, compared to 37% of respondents reporting happiness with their gift cards. It’s clear that Americans value gift cards more than receiving gifts; they’re feasible, practical, and flexible enough to allow us to acquire what we really want as opposed to what a distant aunt halfway across the country would assume we’d go for. But massive inefficiencies plague the market.

Unused Gift Cards: A Scourge to Gift-Giving

The good news is we’re getting better and better at giving people the gifts they actually want, and gift cards are enabling more people to achieve this goal. The bad news? We’re still wasting a tremendous amount of gifts people gave us to get what we wanted by not using these cards.

The 2009 Card Act took a big swipe at this unused market by reigning in exorbitant fees and loopholes inherent in so many gift cards out there. That helped reduce the size of the unused gift card subset from 7% of all gift card balances to only 0.75% now. While that is a significant improvement, that still leaves us with nearly $1 billion in unused gift card funds. In economic terms, we’d call this a market failure; in personal terms, it’s a tragedy.

Our gift-giving mores and traditions are rooted in a good-natured desire to bring joy to your families, friends, and loved ones, but so much of this desire is wasted because of the market structure of gift cards. After all, what are you really going to do with that American Eagle Outfitters gift card that has a few bucks left on it?

Solution: Sell Gift Card

At EJ Gift Cards, our mission is to end this scourge of wasted generosity by helping you sell your unused gift cards. We respect the goodwill and intentions of the people in your life who gave you the gift cards, and we seek to honor them by letting you receive cash for any unused balance you don’t have a use for anymore.

With 3 easy steps, you’ll have cash in your hand while making sure your loved ones’ desire to give you a desirable gift was received. All you have to do is let us know who the merchant is and how much money is left on the card, and we’ll generate an instantaneous offer for you. No pressure either—if you don’t like the offer, you can feel free to hold onto that card and do as you please with it. Think of us as your failsafe for that gift card. If you have the opportunity to use that balance for something you really want, fantastic; if not, sell your gift card to us and get some universally applicable cash to use as you please.

The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same

Our gift-giving traditions and holidays, span centuries. They represent an amalgamation of societies, cultures, and eras of time. We rely on these traditions to build relationships, reinforce foundations, and demonstrate feelings of love and reciprocity for one another. Their cultural evolution throughout time has taken them through a whole host of twists and turns, but it’s left us with an indelible desire to give to others and receive graciously.

This isn’t changing any time soon. Traditions are woven into our rich history as human beings, and the tradition of giving and receiving is one of the oldest and strongest we’ve kept around. We love to do it, but at times fail to execute because of certain cognitive biases and limitations. This has paved the way for the gift card revolution, and this trend will continue to grow as we move forward.

Wherever the gift card movement ventures off into the future, there will always be inefficiencies attributable to wasted card balances. More than just an annoyance, these wastes represent a missed opportunity to honor the relationship-building capabilities of gift reception. At EJ Gift Cards, we think that’s entirely unnecessary.

Our model is set up to give you an easy way out of this conundrum. By giving us a few pieces of easy information, we’re able to offer you a quick quote to sell your gift card for a significant portion of its value. That cash can buy you that feasible gift you’ve been looking for while honoring the intentions of your loved one who wanted that to begin with.

So give us a shot here. There’s no pressure to accept our offer, and you can always decline and opt to use that card for anything you wanted from that merchant. But selling your gift card is a simple way of ensuring you get what you want, while your giver gets what they wanted as well: your happiness. Honor this global tradition of gift-giving, and try us out today! We’re sure you’ll come back again.

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jamieclawhorn · 7 years

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7 big differences between crowdfunding and investing in the stock market

According to an article in the 14th May issue of The Sunday Times, cycling clothing brand Vulpine Performance raised £1 million in a week on the Crowdcube website in 2015, valuing the start-up at £5m.

But having burned through all its cash – and with a recent attempt to raise more money at, bizarrely, a higher £7.5m valuation, having failed – Vulpine reportedly called in the administrators. Around 600 shareholders are set to lose money. Now, I suspect this made the front of The Sunday Times‘ business section because Vulpine has collaborated in the past with the Olympian Sir Chris Hoy. That gives the unfortunate collapse some star appeal, and a famous photo to go with it. But might we also be seeing the start of a crowdfunding backlash? The combination of small investors losing millions in failed ventures does tick a few boxes from a journalistic standpoint.

Crowdfunding versus investing in shares

For the uninitiated, crowdfunding involves putting money into unlisted companies, Dragon’s Den style, in the hope of a huge return down the line. Investors can often invest as little as £10 to become part of the ‘crowd’. Most coverage celebrates this democratisation, without which angel investing is the domain of the wealthy and well connected. A backlash could argue several different angles: that many investors don’t understand the risks of investing in start-ups and crowdfunding, that many funded companies are valued too highly, that specific companies have not been candid about their financial situation, or perhaps that the entrepreneurs running these businesses don’t have the skills to scale, and might have done better working with traditional VCs who could lend more than money. There’s probably some truth in all of that. For instance, I’ve met people who put money into unlisted companies via crowdfunding websites but who tell me the stock market is too risky (or rigged by the City, or similar nonsense). That’s silly.

Personally, I welcomed the arrival of crowdfunding, and I believe it adds value to the investing landscape. The important thing is to understand what you’re getting into – and to realise that for most people, crowdfunding should only be done with money you genuinely can afford to lose. Not with money that should be invested in a pension for your retirement! I haven’t the space to do an exhaustive guide to crowdfunding – and it’s not really our beat – but to get you up-to-speed, here are some big differences between it and stock market investing.

1. It’s very risky

Investing in start-up companies is super-risky. We think of small companies on the stock market as being risky, but they are a tiny proportion of the hundreds of thousands of companies that never get so far.

I’ve seen data suggesting as many as two thirds of investments by US venture capital funds lose money – and those are the big boys and girls who know what they’re doing. It’s safest to assume most crowdfunded firms will either go bust or at best limp along or be acquired for a song.

2. It’s illiquid

When you buy shares in an unlisted company, you’re basically stuck owning them until the company is either acquired (which has happened a mere handful of times in the life of the sector) or until it lists on the stock market, enabling you to trade your shares (this has not happened yet with a crowdfunded company in the UK to my knowledge).

The crowdfunding sites talk about creating secondary markets (and one, Seedrs, has just launched its first) but that’s really for the future. It’s best to assume your investment is locked away indefinitely. In contrast, while small shares on AIM can be very illiquid, you can usually find a buyer for any normal amount of shares at a price, especially if you’re willing to take a hit.

3. It’s for the long-term

We often say investing is for the long-term, but that’s triply true of investing in unlisted start-ups. Firstly, you’re almost always investing in a company at the start of its life. Secondly, as I say it may be years before you can sell out anyway. I think a ten-year time horizon is an appropriate way to think about any unlisted investments.

4. The tax breaks are different

There can be big upfront tax breaks for investing in unlimited companies via government schemes designed to encourage investment – so-called SEIS and EIS schemes. These can offer very generous income and capital gains tax relief. However you can’t invest in crowdfunded shares via your ISA. It might be possible through a SIPP, if your provider allows it, but I wouldn’t expect it to be easy.

5. Forget about dividends

One reason I feel crowdfunding is attracting investors who aren’t sufficiently knowledgeable is that I hear them asking start-ups about dividends. People, these are almost always companies raising money to pay the rent and to try to grow enough to make the next round of funding. They are eating cash, not paying it out. Forget about them if you’re after an income.

6. You’re basically on your own

When you buy shares listed on a stock market, you’re investing alongside a crowd, too – albeit of a very different sort. The price the shares trade at will be determined by the fluctuating opinions of a sea of investors, and the ones with the most money – and thus the biggest impact on the share price – are typically the best-informed.

Fund managers, mostly, in turn guided by expert analysts. They’re obviously far from perfectly informed, otherwise we’d never see share prices soar and fall. But compare that to crowdfunding, where you must typically make your own mind up based on little more than a promotional video, a few PDFs of facts and figures, and perhaps the reassurance of a couple of seemingly sophisticated investors. There’s no ‘wisdom of the crowd’ here.

7. You could make truly monstrous returns

Finally, the upside! Let’s face it – this is why people are drawn to investing in start-up companies. It’s one thing to invest in the next Apple or Microsoft when it lists on the stock market.

But imagine if you’d invested in such a company when it was starting out in a garage and scrabbling around for seed money. This is how you could log enough noughts after the first digit of your investment return to make up for all the times you will make absolutely zero – and maybe much more. However, we’re talking lottery-type odds here. Millions of companies are founded every year. There’s only one Apple.

Conclusion

I’ve had to be brief here, and there are obviously exceptions and caveats. The important thing to remember is that crowdfunding is overwhelmingly risky, illiquid and opaque – and that’s true even if you spoke to the management team over some free beers at a jolly ‘Meet The Team’ event. You might think I’m saying nobody should invest in unlisted companies. That is not the case. I have myself allocated some money to my own mini-portfolio of unlisted start-ups. I like putting money directly into companies who capture my imagination. And yes, I do like meeting the managers. However, I’m keenly aware of the risks and have invested only a tiny proportion of my total long-term funds. One of the investors in the Sunday Times story who had put money into Vulpine is quoted by the paper as saying: “To me, crowdfunding looks like a ticking timebomb.” Perhaps that’s true from a regulatory standpoint. The sector is new, and I’m sure it has some growing pains ahead. But we should not be reaching such a conclusion on the basis of one company failing – nor on the first successes, such as the recent high valuation put on Brewdog, the craft beer company initially backed by private investors.

I hope a company I’ve backed achieves great things, but realistically I know most will meet an unprofitable demise. And that’s only a timebomb if I didn’t realise the clock was ticking when I invested.

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