I will admit, for a multitude of reasons, I have found perhaps my worst bout of depression in quite a while... I feel like I am trapped in a corner, a cell in my own mind, a prison of my life...

I don't know how to get out of it. I don't know if it was my own doing getting me here... I think everytime before it's just passed and life has gone on as normal... until I find myself back here once again...

Everything I do seems to end in failure. Everyone who I thought I could count upon has grown distant. Everyone else pretend not to know me. I don't know who I can trust...

I bang my head against a wall and spin around in circles; even quite literally in one of my latest hobbies that has since turned sour...

I feel ill, both physically and mentally... the former probably a result of the latter...

I feel sick just admiting this... I feel sick in general...

I don't know how much more I can take...

I feel like I am a crumbling mess...

A pathetic and weak facade...

I don't know how to end this...

I've only just got back from France but I'm going away again in 2 weeks time (from October 11th until the 17th at the latest) but I don't know where to go and can't find anyone to go with, so I might be going alone!

Any ideas or suggestions to travel to in this current world, baring in mind I've already been to these places?

Was considering Belfast (& Giant's Causeway) or Valletta, but not entirely sold yet.

I found some old sketches today when doing some clearing out! They would have been from around 2013-2015 and I'm frankly quite proud of them if I do say so myself!

As these are very old they include old designs for my sona and in some include exs which I'm no longer with; but doesn't take away from the art it's self!

So sorry for the impending spam; I hope to be quick so you all don't get too many notifications throughout the day from me.


EDIT: Turns out most include my ex,  EagleAlex in them! I've not spoken or seen him in ages so I hope he's doing well. But otherwise regardless of what happened, I do think the artwork is beautiful enough to share!

Hi all!

Just a quick journal from me to ask which of my three main male fursonas do you like the most?

Gallery links:
Avogadro (Avory) Lo'Raven
Ordagova Nevarol
Stripez Honeysuckle

Vote here: https://strawpoll.vote/polls/6uj8whrg/vote

If you want to make any comments then always feel free to comment bellow!

I may have been born in England, live in England and speak English, but I am British. I don't like being called English.

Historically for me England is the heart and home of Great Britain and the United Kingdom; bolstered by the scientific inovations of Scotland, the tireless muscle of Wales and the intoxiating culture of Ireland (now since divided).

However in the present day, I take "English" as an insult. For me, being English means being a small minded destructive and racist hooligan who thinks they are the centre of universe and no one else matters. This is shown clearly in at least two places which gives "England" and "English" a bad reputation for the best of us:

The first is holidaying aborad in mass; taking up entire cities in most notibly Spain among other countries, were hordes of English tourists pack beaches, bars to shout, scream, litter, riot and disturb the peace of others not having any manners or care.

The second has been very recently reminded in the form of Football; no one supports the England Football team outside of England because the fans are toxic, disgusting and disgraceful. England played Italy in the final, and despite England playing at home in front of their home fans, across the world Italy had more fans because of how undeserving England's fans were. They riot, mug, discriminate and countless other crimes and disruptions. ...and that's even before the game! The teams and players in association football (shorterned to 'soccer' in the USA) follow the rules, so it's well overdue for the fans to do so to. I hate football because of my home nation's disgusting fans, I always give it a shot every World Cup or Euro, but I always dispise them after.

TL;DR - "English" people are disgusting and selfish whilst "British" people are civil and outward looking.

Hi all, I am looking to see if anyone can offer me a date.

Normally I don't like dates, but in the right situation they are great!

I am looking to recreate my best memories of when I was in Dubai and the highlight of that holiday was that amazing milkshake~

So if anyone is offering me a date or multiple so I can put it into a milkshake that will be great! I can't wait to have a date milkshake again as it was truly the best flavour of milkshake of all time~

-Avi

Just after Christmas in 2019 I was very ill, I was coughing heavily all the time, pains in my chest, struggling to breath and lost my sense of taste and smell. This carried on into the new year and on the 9th of January 2020 my family had to call an ambulence because it had got so bad where I felt I couldn't breath. I felt like I was going to die.

The ambulence did come after an hour and the paramedics had a look at me; they made me feel like a fool as they dismissed any illness saying that I was just recovering from coughing so much in the two weeks prior making my chest feel sore and strained. I felt incredibly embarressed but still knew something was wrong with me.

Fast forward to the present day, Europe and other areas outside of China, are coming up to a year of Covid - vaccines are rolling out slowly and I am fortunate enough to be in the country in the lead for vaccinations outside Israel and Taiwan. However people are still calling for lockdowns to be lifted sooner then they should; citing that now we have a vaccine we should open the flood gates and get back to normality as the vaccine has saved us! -it doesn't work like that. For starters if you open the flood gates, then people who've not yet the vaccine could still get the virus, obviously. But on top of that, the virus can mutate and perhaps be ineffected by the virus; we still need to be alert to this and stop any new variants from spreading as the vaccine would need to be adapted to fight newer variants, and those who have already had old vaccines would need a 'booster' to keep themselves protected.

People need to still follow the rules and advise given by government bodies as we could still see a rise in case numbers in people who have not yet had the vaccine, or because of a new variant uneffected by the vaccine - that is why there is such a huge emphasis on testing and quarentine when entering a country - especially when it is your own country. People have arguged that they don't need to quarentine in a hotel in their home country when travelling back from another country for whatever reason, citing they should quarentine at home - well I would disagree as many people cannot be trusted, and even then those who can be might accidently pass it on when taking delivery of something in their own home. In England there was been a week long man-hunt to find out who came back from Brazil, had a test at the airport but didn't provide any details only for us to find out he was carrying the more deadly and infectious variant of the virus from Brazil - we didn't know who they were, where they were or what they are doing but they had and could be spreading a more deadly and infectious variant of covid. They were recently identified and contacted, but no one has given a comment on what would happen to the indervidual after flouting the rules and putting so many people at risk. I personally would prefer a harsher punishment a they have broken the rules and put people's lives at risk.

You may be asking, why I said I had covid, and why I started off with my recollection of events from exactly 14 months ago. That is because I am sure I had covid, as do many others in my local area back December 2019 to January 2020 - before the first confirmed diagnosed cases in Europe. The first confirmed case in China was the 17th of November 2019.

I felt like I was dieing, and since then I know of at least 23 friends and family who have been confirmed to have had covid (not including those who believe they had it Xmas 2019) and every single one of them said it was agony, saying that they felt they were dieing, but fortunately all but two come out the other on top, unfortunately the other two are still with us, but now with a heart condition making them extreamly weak and vunrable. However each citing that they wouldn't wish it upon anyone.

I'm not like that - I wish the virus on EVERYONE who flouts the rules, ignores the guidence, thinks the virus is not bad or even believes it's a conspiracy. I wish it be on them and their familes, friends and love ones - because after a year of seeing people suffer when some cases could of been prevented from other people's cooperations there is no way that these people will learn without being struck down themselves and those near them so they feel the pain and have to endure watching those around them suffer.

Follow the rules. Protected others. No 'ifs', no 'buts'.

We've wander'd mony a weary fit, sin' auld lang syne (But we've wandered many a weary foot, since days gone by).

A year that none of us will forget any time soon, 2020 brought great changes to the world though the pandemic. There are many lessons to learn from this and they need to be taken on board as there is no doubt that it will happen again in our globalised world.
We should have been ready, prepared, but for most of us we were not. Some of us were even too late to stop it from getting out of hand; but hindsight is just that, and cannot be changed; we can only use what we've learned and take it forward to make changes and plans with the past 13 months taken into account. We may feel broken, and vulnerable right now; but we will come out stronger.

I would like to thank everyone who helped across the world in the pandemic; those who are essential workers (Doctors, carers, police, delivery drivers, supermarket sales assistants and more), those who worked from home to continue to keep the companies and economies of the world afloat even when everything was closing down around them, and the ordinary people who stayed at home when possible and wore masks when out and about to protect others around you from spreading the virus to them if you knew you had it or not. All these selfless acts build people, communities and a safer world around us. Once again, thank you for helping where you can.

Those of you that do not follow the rules and common sense; whether it be a mask, going out partying or simply defying the rules for the sake of "freedom". You are not displaying freedom; you are displaying selfishness and stupidity. You are putting those around you at risk with your actions; a mask prevents people from getting germs and covid that you may be spreading, not the other way around for instance. Everyone needs to assume they have the virus until they've had a vaccine so they have not; and it makes me angry to that some people ignore this.

This year has been a tough one; perhaps the toughest everyone alive right now has faced so far. But together, we can get through this. Together we can keep each other safe until everyone gets a vaccination to make it for certain.

Together, we will defeat Covid-19.

Together, we will rise again in 2021 as we defeat this invisible threat and come out stronger.

Happy new year everyone!

So for about a year now I've struggled to figure out what my favorite sona was... Not which of them was my favorite; because for me that wasn't up for debate. The question was 'what is Stripez Honeysuckle'? (Gallery link)

I had always called him a Honey Bee, but he didn't look like one. Instead he looked like a wasp; probably because when I made him with the help of  TheKC back in July 2015 we used images of wasps as a reference instead of bees (They do look 'cooler' then bees which look more 'cuter'). However over the past few years more and more people have questioned his species or have just down right labled him a wasp (such as on e621.net).

So after a year or playing around with re-designs changing colours, pattens, features, shapes and other 'fluff' and going to friends and experts in the community for opinions I finally made up my mind on what species Stipez is and how he should look going forward:

He will look pretty much exactly the same, but without the stinger (that was always meant to go as a male). His species will be a Common/European Wasp (aka Vespula vulgaris) with a bit of Honey Bee inside him from his father, Bohemian Honeysuckle. (Gallery link) He does not like being called a wasp because of mother-issues so always calls himself a honey bee like his father.

I hope to get more art of him soon as he is my favorite fursona, more so then Avory, but it's so difficult to find artists willing to draw him either out of complexity or fears or dislike of the species.


In other news, I've been feeling well and getting on with life during this pandemic. I'm back at work and continuing my anti-social life stuck in doors. The only real bit I'm missing is traveling abroad with all of the holidays we had this year (Italy and France & Monaco) pushed back or replaced (now Czechia and France & Monaco). However I'm looking at taking a week off in December this year to see if cases remain low in my area and abroad to see if I can get a short break in somewhere before the year's end (being sensible of course at the same time). Currently I'm looking at Stockholm, Sweden, because of the lack of quarenteen and test requirements on entry and the general sense of just getting on with life being sensible. Their stats are looking good right now after a scray start opting for herd immunity, but it apears to be paying off in the long run.

-Avory

After my last journal, I think I want to write a more positive one. So here is a list of places that I want to go to the most:

Bucket List (in no particular order):
Mexico - from a beautiful all inclusive resort in Cancun, visit the Chichen Itza, Tulum and Ik Kil
Peru - visit Cusco and do the Inca Trail to visit Machu Pichu.
Argentina - visit Buenos Aries, Patagonia and get on a cruse from Ushuaia to Antartica
Russia - visit Saint Petersburg and Moscow, then travel on the Trans-Siberian railway across russia to Irkutsk and Lake Baikal, perhaps stopping off in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, on the way before continuing on to Vladivostok to complete the journey.
Ukraine - visit Kiev and the eclusion zone to see Chernobyl and Pripyat.
Turkey - visit Istanbul, Cotton Castle/Pamukkale and Capadocia.
Egypt - visit Luxor to see it's Temple and Valley of the Kings, perhaps also do the obligatory stop at Giza for the Pyramids (although they aren't what they are cracked up to be irl) and maybe even Alexandria.
Nepal - visit Kathmandu and then do the 1-2 week from Lukla to Mount Everest Base Camp and back.
Vietnam - Visit Hanoi and cruse around Ha Long Bay
Cambodia - visit Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom and the other sites within the temple city complex in Siem Reap.

'(Most likely) Next on my list':
Canada - Visit Montreal to see the Canadian F1 Gran Prix, and visit Toronto to see Niagra Falls.
Costa Rica - A resort by the sea, and then up in the jungle and mountains.
Italy - Taranto or Bari.
Czech Republic - Prague, a beautiful city I would love to see, great for a short get away, and also have resturants with model trains delivering your drinks!
Lithuenia - Vilnius, I want to visit here to complete the Baltic Trio! But also because it's a beautiful melting pot of Germanic, Polish, Russian and Scandinavian cultures.
Ukraine - visit Kiev and the eclusion zone to see Chernobyl and Pripyat.
South Africa - Cape Town again.

Places I will love to visit again:
Canada - Vancouver, wonderful city, great food, so much to see and do.
Italy - Venice, one of my favorite cities in the world, but I want to go out of season to not be part of the harmful summer crow that flood the city in numbers and in water level - I've been in Feburary before and the city was just as if not more beautiful under the cool grey skies.
Israel & Palestine - to visit Jerusalem again as I only got to see the old city for but a breif moment, but the rest of the 'new city' seems to offer so much and is worth going back to; would also be great to have a tour of Jericho.
South Africa - missed so much due to a lot being closed due to the pandemic, beautiful country, people and food.
United Arab Emirates - Dubai is always changing, and it's almost been 10 years since I was last there. Might be worth waiting until the new Dubai tower is complete, and the Hyperloop service between the city and Abu Dhabi.
Japan - Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka and Kotoku-In. There is so much I missed in Tokyo as it's such a big city and my father was no good at planning. We saw Kyoto and Osaka for such short period of time when there was so much more; and we traveled to Kamakura to see Hasedera but never saw the Kotoku-In!
Singapore - the perfect city. Great food, people, sights and more. I felt at home here; I wish I could go back. ...just make sure there are no Durians!

So this year has got off to a good start. I doesn’t seem like the world is ending or anything. - of course, I hope everyone can see the huge dose of sarcasm there.

In this journal I'm going to go through chronologically; taking briefly about my holiday last December and my holiday in March - of which because of the current pandemic, I might have been stuck out there. And then finishing on my opinion on current topics. I will try and put headers in this journal so you can skip areas you don't care about.

December 2019, Holiday to Bratislava, Slovakia
Slovakia wasn't high on my list of places I want to visit; but it was still one I wanted to mark off nevertheless, Sitting on the Danube between Austria's Vienna and Hungary's Budapest Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, is a very small, rustic old city with old churches, and roads but otherwise it felt quite modern, especially with what looked to be a brand new castle turned-museum overlooking the city atop the hill. I wasn't expecting much, and didn't really get much - but it was a nice way to get a few days away with my parents and sample another culture.
Because of the time of year the streets and plazas were filled with Christmas markets serving many a local delight including these large hash browns with any condiment you like on them (including a whole wheel of brie), mulled wine and punch. On the first night I got a "thinly sliced pork goulash with butter dumplings" which I've since nicknamed "Slovakian Goulash" and love, the second night I had a proper Hungarian Goulash with these large slices of "dumpling-bread" which I've never had before, but also loved, and then because my father was not that adventurous and thought the restaurant that was filled with Chinese tourists the first two nights but then suddenly empty on the last night was going to be good; we went there and I had a pretty poor cordon-bleu. (When I go to a foreign country; I want to try their foods, not something I can get back home.) And, as I suspected, it wasn't popular, it was just filled with a cheap tour group the previous nights. With my father leading the holiday I didn't get any or much say in what we saw or where we went, so I think there was a fair bit I missed out on, but I'm not in any hurry to go back as even then there wasn't too much to amaze me to see; perhaps the highlight was the little blue church which I featured on my "holiday drop image".

March 2020, Holiday to Cape Town, South Africa
So... In the UK, or at least in my town, there was a general feel of disbelief that the Coronavirus was a big deal; the government wasn't panicking, our hospital only had one case and there was just a general sense everywhere that people are just getting too worked up over something that is not going to have any real effect. Oh, how wrong we were. Our UK government just advised against traveling to China, Italy and Iran and nowhere else, and our airline didn't advise against traveling, so as far as they were concerned, we were going. We were aware though that the day before our flight, the president of South Africa had announced that two days after we arrive, no more UK and other "high risk" countries' nationals will be allowed into the country; so we were still able to get in and because of the rate of infections recoded, we believed we would be less likely to catch it out there then back in the UK, even though at the time, both were very slim. We landed in Cape Town with no issues; we had our temperatures taken and filled out a form about our health, but faced no issues getting in.
The holiday was very nice! The people were so nice happy and polite and kind. We spent plenty of hours on the V&A Waterfront, Camps Bay and Signal Hill, but unfortunately the fort, Table Mountain, Robben Island were closed due to forest fires and the fear of the virus which was a shame. Otherwise it was a very normal and pleasant holiday where the only difference was getting free hand sanitizer to wash your hands when entering shops and when you sit down at a table at a restaurant. ...oh! And the fact they banned alcohol which did annoy my parents as it was one of the reasons for coming to one of the best wine countries in the world. The reason was apparently because 'Saffas' kiss and touch a lot more with alcohol, so they banned it to help try and prevent spread of the virus. (which turned out to be a stupid idea a couple of months on it's lead to incredible damage to their wine industry as well as domestic abuse, alcohol smuggling and a rise in gang activity.)
Otherwise the only other significant thing we did was go on a Zipwire tour in the Hottentots Holland Mountains with Cape Canopy Tour, which was really great fun for everyone in the family! Especially my mother and father who screamed like little girls afraid of heights :3
However after a week into the holiday we had confirmation that our flight from Cape Town to Nairobi (a 3hr wait in Nairobi before heading to London) was cancelled due to Kenya closing their boarders, so my father had to book us another pair of flights back, ended up being a large sum of money for the last four seats on the flight for the of us and they were from Cape Town (West coast of South Africa) to Durban (East coast of South Africa) and then onto London.
We continued our holiday as normal; having to eat in our self-catering accommodation due to restaurants deciding to close because they did not find it profitable to stay open with all the restrictions the government put in place up to the second-to-last full day where we found out that our new flight from Cape Town to Durban had also been cancelled. It turns out that all internal flights in the country had been banned to prevent the spread of the virus. We began to panic; knowing that we only had once choice and that was to drive all the way to Durban to get on our flight back home to London. We initially misjudged this as we were pulling out of the car-park, realising that we were going a day early and could stay in our accommodation that night and go the following morning, driving 19 hours during the day to get to our flight on time. However collectively we decided it would be best leaving that afternoon and driving 19 hours thought night along unlit roads in the pitch black wilderness of South Africa traveling the whole width of the country (We were passed by other cars filled with suitcases and saw that someone had hit an large animal in the road as well as a random tire and other things that you really don't want to see come at you from the pitch black void only 5 metres ahead of you). As dawn broke the following morning we received a text on our family holiday phone which told us that our flight home the following day was actually brought forward to today due to South Africa closing it's boarders to the rest of the world at midnight. It was at this point we realised we made the right decision in starting our drive when we did, otherwise we would of missed our flight and would of been stuck in South Africa for as long as the virus continued. Once we were at the airport, tired and weary, it was completely empty. We dropped our rental car and tried to check in, seeing that there were only a handful of illegal internal flights and our flight to London. We were the first there and ended up talking to other passengers who filtered in over the day who told their story and we told ours; all were quite amazed our of feat driving 19hrs non-stop through the pitch black night in a rental car to get this flight home. We also found out that all other international flights out of South Africa were cancelled, leaving ours as the last one, with people driving from all over South Africa to try and get on this flight on stand-by (as our family got the last 4 tickets), and with the fact that the flight was moved a day ahead meant that not that mean people who were due to be on the flight ended up getting on; so everyone who did managed to get to the airport got on. The airport was essentially closed and we had to fill out the same form again about our health before we could board. It was one tense wait, hoping we could take off before midnight otherwise we were stuck.
Once we landed back in London, we felt free. So incredibly tired, but free. The story of our journey across South Africa is not one we are ever going to forget, and will now think again about whether we should go or not during what eventually became a global pandemic - but no one knew it would get this bad.
However... one thing did shock us when we got back. When we got off our flight, we were fully expecting for our temperatures to be taken and medical forms to be filled out just like we did when we arrived and left South Africa. Nothing... There was no a single thing to stop us from walking straight though normally. This sickened us. They could at least have taken your temperature before or at boarder control to try and gleam some sort of information - and if the excuse is there is no staff available to do a simple temperature reading and then jot it down onto a piece of paper for record; BULLSHIT. There is a lack of flights at the moment meaning an abundance of staff at airports not doing anything! Just get them to point a temperature gun at someone's head to get something! It really does sicken me that the UK government has been so slow to do anything. (And don't tell me Labour, Liberal or the SNP would of done any better as they have all just sat there with fingers up their arse just complaining about one another! Forget party politics! We need to get through this to pull yourselves together!)
Otherwise, we do have plans to go back to Cape Town and South Africa when this all hopefully clears up to see what we missed as it was a beautiful country filled with beautiful people; and we have some family friends who would like to come with us!

Future plans
My July Italian holiday to Sardinia is cancelled, my September Southern France & Monoco holiday is still unknown, and my end of year holiday with friends to Canada with  PhoenixRage16 and Ukraine with  FoxHound1710 are now is very unlikely.

The world will be a different place when this pandemic ends. Let's hope it will eventually be a better one for all.

My 3rd year of independant travel continuned the now annual holiday to Canada to meet with  Phoenixrage16. With the first being a nice start in the prairies of Alberta (2017), second to the high-life city of Vancouver in the west (2018) and now the third being to the old French settlement of Quebec City in the east (2019).

I was getting worried about Quebec City; I heard so many people say that the Quebecoise are so rude and will not speak to you if you spoke English. However I well delighted by the kindness, hospitality and the English of the locals. (Apprently my few small phrases of French were good enough to trick the locals into responding back to me in French!)

Quebec City was a beautiful city; a unusal blend of blend of a modern North American city and a old European city with the destinct boarder of the old city walls which seems to take you back across the Atlantic. The food was amazing too; posisbly some of the best I've every had on a holiday! (but did come at a pretty penny.)


My recommendations for Quebec City:

- The Old City was a beautiful old European-style city. Although there were hits of modern North American influence it was a good example of what to expect back over on the parent continent. I could spend forever wondering through these streets; but the weather didn't really want to cooperate most days.

- Aux Anciens Canadiens is that small little red roofed building in the centre of the Old City that you can't miss. They do two set menus; a three course for lunch and a five course for dinner, both with traditional local Quebecoise meals. I took this oppounity to finally have the that traditional French dish of Escargots in garlic and parsley butter to finally say "I've had snails!" (Volcan seemed like he felt more accomplished having beetroot for the first time). The main I had was a "Wild Meats Pie" with a traditional tomatoe ketchup (salsa) and followed by a maple crème brûlée.

- Fairmont Le Château Frontenac is that very famous building you see in all of the pictures of Quebec City. From my understanding it was an old hotel owned by the national railway company before being sold onto multiple owners before ending up under the Fairmont brand. it's huge imposing tower gazing down at you from behind it's red brick walls and roofed towers is utterly spectacular (ruined by tonnes of scafolding covering up the front of the building when we went.) and is arguablely one of the most beautiful if not the most beautiful building in all of Canada and I would even go as far as saying the most beautiful building in North America or the French-speaking world! Walking along the front of the building you find yourself on a wooden broadwalk (akin to those you would find at the seaside in Europe) called the Terrasse Dufferin that takes you along the Saint Lawrence River high up under the Citadelle to the Plains of Abraham. All the trees were a beautiful red, orange and gold when we went; well worth the walk and there are plenty of stairs to keep you exercised!

- We actually stayed at the Château Frontenac for our last half of the holiday up on the top floor. It wasn't cheap but it was affordable for the pleasure! Two of those nights we dinned at a small fondue resturant in the wall of the Château called Le Petit Château. I've never had a fondue before and they did a three course set menu called "Trio Fondue!". Possibly my best dining experiance ever the starter was a cheese fondue with a nice big basket of bread (it was delicious!), the second was one of three selections; of which the first night we had the "wild meats" of Bison, Stag and Elk (Elk was definatly the best!) followed by either a chocolate or maple fondue. The chocolate fondue was rich with fruits and marshmallows whilst the maple fondue was so sweet with fruits and sponge cake!~

- The Royal 22 e Régiment Museum at the La Citadelle de Québec was surprising. I didn't expect much from the Citadelle so was once again plesently surprised at the museum which told the story of the 22nd Regiment throughout the years since it's conception up to the present day and how they help out around the world. The ticket did include a tour of the Citadelle but we decided not to partake in it; being happy enough with the museum.

- Montmorency Falls are the tallest waterfalls in North America (being 30m taller then Niagara Falls) and were spectacular. The paths and walkways around them through the trees and bushes on the cliff were beautiful and peaceful, despite being quite busy! Only one of the two top enterances were open when we went; Manoir Montmorency entrance to the West of the park, so be prepared for a bit of walking if you go to the wrong one!

- The île d'Orléans (Isle of Orleans) is a large island in the middle of the Saint Lawrence River famous for it's vinyards and other produce. Whilst I couldn't find a suitable food tour to go on in Quebec City I did learn of the island's history and decided to book the tour despite not being a wine drinker myself. I was not disapointed! The wines were good but the Icewine was amazing! Canadian Icewine is my new favorite alcholic drink!
The tour we were with was with Quebec Bus Tour and was very informative and we got to try so much! I've detailed my two favorite stops bellow, but we also got to go to a chocolateria, nougateria and a blackcurrent farm and store:
- Vignoble du Mitan was the second stop where we got to try 4 local wines of various types (I believe it was 2 red, 1 white and 1 rosé) and then for an extra fee we got to try their speciality geo-protected Icewine. This was definatly worth the extra fee as I fell in love with it; buying two bottles of it to take home!
- Cidrerie Verger Bilodeau was the third stop; a orchard that sells many many many different produce, mostly made with apples! The hostess put on a great show getting us to try almost everything in the shop. But once again I saw sold at the taste of the "Drink of the Gods" - Icecider - which was arguably better then the icewine so I had to buy a bottle of this too!


- Whilst I can't really recomend our first hotel, Hôtel Palace Royal, because I'm still quite annoyed at the basement-like room we were given and I personally didn't use the indoor pool (you would need to ask Phoenixrage16 for that review) I did enjoy the Restaurant Beffroi Steak House that they housed. Once again the food was pricey but it we certainly both delicious and filling with a great vererity of meals, drinks and deserts; good enough for us to return to on a second occasion.

Let's start with a story that goes back to July 2018:

The moment I stepped foot back on Great Britain after my flying back from Singapore (possibly my favorite holiday of the decade) my mind immediatly turned to "Where are we going next?". Of course, my father didn't want to think about the next family holiday after still paying for the one we just had (and probably the most expensive one to date, on par or moreso then Japan two years before). But I was keen; I want to know what's next, because it gives me something to look forward to, aim towards as I lay my head down each night to wake up the following morning - travel is what I live for.

I had started watching a new youtube channel called Kara and Nate and was getting many new ideas from them. Some I can imagine doing with family and some I can't; despite this I was constantly asking my father about certain suggestions; 'exotic' countries I've never been do; Mexico, Brazil, Turkey, Tunisia, Egypt, Tanzania, Myanmar, South Korea, Australia. But every sugestion he would shoot it down with a comment of why we can't go there:

Mexico - "It's just a more expensive version of Spain; you can only go to Cancún and stay in a resort, otherwise you will also be killed there."
Brazil - "You will be killed by gangs there."
Turkey - "You will die at the hands of their goverment."
Tunisia - "Terrorist attacks every year"
Egypt - "It's not what you expect, and you will be killed there."
Tanzania - "You will be die from mosquitoes."
Myanmar - "The government is ethnic clensing."
South Korea - "You will be killed by the north"
Australia - "Everything will kill you, and I am not putting up with the distant family out there"

So essentually, I gave up asking and let him decide the holiday alone; in the mean time I went to Riga, Latvia, with Foxhound1710 in December. When I got back, I was greated with my dad at the dinner table with... "I've been looking at Eilat in Israel. Our airport is going to start flights there next year so it will be easy to get to."
I was stunned, and my first response was "After dismissing all of the places I suggested as too dangerous... you are suggesting a country which is on the news every week because of rockets from the Gaza Strip bombing people's homes in Israel fairly close to the capital?!"
"They won't have flights going there if it was too dangerous."
"There are flights going to the countries I suggested that you said that were too dangerous!"
"Well don't come if you don't want to!"

...so that's the story of how my big 2019 holiday was to the "Holy Land".

I said that I will come because I always wanted to go to Jerusalem but maybe later on in life if things had calmed down - but then I taught myself to think... "What if this is the last time everything there will be intact? What if I leave it and then something happens and I missed my chance to see it?"
So that's what I kept saying to myself; that this was my last chance to see it before it goes.

But when I was there; I was truely surprised; the place was amazing and I would definatly go there again!


I'm going to keep this section short and sweet as it was such a long time ago now for the details, but I will recomend the bits I can remember as those are the bits I enjoyed the most:

My recommendations for Israel & Palastine/West Bank are:

- Tel Aviv is the beautiful, vibrant and welcoming widely accepted capital of Israel and sits on the coast of the Mediterranean. The markets are always full to the brim with food, clothes, gizmos and other knick-knacks. We stayed here for the holiday and travelled out of here via train to various places. The food was unfortunatly disapointing as every resturant seemed to sell the same things; Chicken, Schnitzel, Burger with either Chips or Salad - I wasn't in control of where to go, that was my father, so I would of gone to a very different selection of restuarnts instead, including Russian, Yemanite and Georgian, but luckly I was still able to get some local humas with pitta, shreaded beef and other proper Israeli foods from local menus hidden away at my father's boring restaurants.

- Jaffa is the orignal old city which Tel Aviv grew out from; it is a beautiful and authentic old port and market which you definatly need to make the trip to. We managed to walk all the way from Tel Aviv to Jaffa along the coast; it's a very long walk but very plesent. You can also hire electic scooters or pedal bikes too if the journey is too long and tiresome for you; however make sure you don't miss the markets like we almost did, they are bright and colourful and quite amazing, but they are a distance away from the coast so you might miss it if you aren't leavint the coast to head into the centre of Jaffa.

- Haifa is a train journey away from Tel Aviv and is home to what can only be described as The Hanging Gardens of Haifa, more formally known as the Baháʼí Gardens. This awe inspiring terraces/tiered garden is in three parts on the side of a mountain and are open to the public for free to view from viewing areas. Most of the garden is closed off to the public in order to keep it immaculate as it is a religious site for the Bahá í faith (from my understanding, it's a religion that accepts all reglions?). I advise taking the underground funicular to the top of the mountain and make your way down visiting each of the three parts before ending up in "German Colony" for lunch. Just make sure to cover your shoulders and legs when entering the gardens for respect.

- Masada is mountain fortress with a sheer cliff on every side making it impossible to invade -or so did King Herod the Great believe when he and his people fled here when he escaped the Romans who then bult a giant ramp/earth-work up to the side of the fortress to penetrate it. Standing ontop and over looking all of the land around you cannot believe the height and size of this fortress that sits beside the Dead Sea and the amazing stories of those who used it. I visited here as apart of a tour from Tel Aviv to Masada and the Dead Sea and back.

- The Dead Sea is one of the natural wonders of the world I always wanted to visit; my dad wanted to go but didn't want to fork out the money for it, so I decided to pay for me and my family to go on a tour there via Masada. I've seen films and shows of the Dead Sea; able to float in it, having rejuvinating properties and being increadbly salty; at least two of those points were true! The 'beach' was black and hot and the water was warm and thick; and tasted increadbly salty (you aren't supposed to drink it as it can kill you! But it's hard not to lick you lips accidentally when you feel something on there). I also learnt the history about the Dead Sea, and how it used to form the Soren Sea with the Jordan River and the Sea of Galilee, connected to the Mediterranean, but a combination of natural and human intervention cut the seas off and now the Dead Sea is drying up; shrinking because less water gets into it then what evaporates. You can see the layers on the banks of the Dead Sea of how high it was in previous years; and it's scary to say the least that in a few years this natural wonders might be gone for good. There are plans at the moment of Israel and Jordan to build a canal from the Red Sea in the south to the Dead Sea, to fill it up or at least keep it topped up with sea water from the wider ocean and also use some of the water in this canal for drinking water in Jordan, but nothing has been confirmed yet; but I hope it gets started soon.

- Jerusalem is a modern City on the border of Israel and Palestine to all of our surprise; if we had known this we might of spent more time here but we didn't know it would be so clean and posh. We only realised this when we travelled here (2 train journeys via the airport train station) to visit the old holy city of Jerusalem. The Holy City was beautiful; a wonderful maze of walls, stairs, markets and merchants. I could of spent more then a few hours here. I could of spent a few days here exporing the old and new cities together. I visited the ruins of the City of David which took you underground to see the remains of the earlier settlements, teach you about the history of Jerusalem and finish in the ruins of the Temple Mount. I also visited the Western Wall to observe those of the Jewish faith to pray; the closest they can get to the Temple Mount before heading back to the train for Tel Aviv. Annoyingly, again because of my father, we didn't actually go up Temple Mount to see the Dome of the Rock but I did see it from afar and it did look beautiful, regardless of whose faith it is for.

So in conclusion; Israel is definatly a must see. I felt incredibly safe there despite one in five people were in military uniform and possibly holding a large rifle. I would go there again to see Jerusalem once more and go see Jericho and Bethlehem.



PS. Although Israel is a Hebrew/Jewish country you still can get non-kosher foods in Tel Aviv such as pork; but I don't recomend it as it is not going to be that well looked after and may make you ill. (My father bought pork on one of our first days to cook back at our room and made all of us some-what ill for the whole holiday and two weeks after - why on earth he would buy pork in a mostly kosher country?!)

I hate my dad... he's a fucking idiot...

Oh my god... I really hate it when website change their style to be "more mobile friendly" because I've never had an issue on my phone on any website. In fact, I spend most of my time on website on my phone battling it to request "desktop view/version" because the mobile one is to clunky, takes up too much space, slow and no idea where anything is!

I am one of those people who had the light style for FA before; It was a lot brighter and looked a hell of a lot better (really difficult to read people's profiles though if they used light colours).
But this style... Oh my god... STOP MAKING EVERYTHING "MOBILE FRIENDLY" because it then means the desktops now have everything streched across the screen wasting so much space!

Everything had a nice boarder before; everything was nicely spaced; now everything is in modular boxes that resize and refit to tiny screens but no longer satisfy a desktop!

...maybe I'm just getting old... I am a so-called GenZ but I act more like a GenY; growing up with desktop computers and not having a proper smartphone for years until 3-4 years ago when I finally got one for the camera. I now use my phone for a lot of things but never had an issue with websites... SO PLEASE STOP MAKING WEBSITES BETTER FOR PHONES BECAUSE THEY DON'T NEED TO BE BETTER!

The is no point me switching to the old version as they will retire it regardless meaning everyone will eventually have to use the new one; I may as well get used to it. (If anything; FA should spend more money on keeping the servers running to faffing about with changing the look of the website).

Ok... rant over...

I didn't want to make a new journal before the end of the year; but this change made me do it.

Anyhow... Happy New Year Everyone!
Let's hope 2020 and the decade to follow will be a good one!

Wow... Did I only do 3 journals since my three part 2018 in Relection journals?
Well... the Palermo, Italy, review dosen't really count; I still need to do Israel, Quebec and Slovakia's before the end of the year. I'll do those after this journal... possibly.
Another... Depressing journal? And then the tangent that was the idea of Turning my Fursona Red perminantly, but due to the very mixed response I've scrapped that for the most part and decided that maybe I should only reserve that for Halloween (despite not being someone who celebrates it or partakes in it) and other "horror themes".

This Christmas was ok I guess. I had a bit of a wobble on the build up and on Christmas morning, but that's now behind me; however I now have a long list of new years resolutions which hopefully won't be scrapped after the first month.

2019 has been... a confusing year in the larger scale of things; a very turbulent one, lots of anger, lots of protest, lots of conflict. I hope 2020 will be a year of resolve, a year of renew, a year of peace and understanding.

I hope brexit gets sorted; it's been going on for 2 and a half years now and we need to just get on with it.

China needs to fall apart... Give Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Tibet and Xingjang their independance back and get China to fracture into more managable democratic states.

America... well... I'm not American so I'm not going to say much other then "just sort it out."

Something needs done about climate change; I'm one for believing that most of our CO2 if from living organizims on this planet; there 8 billion people on this planet all breathing out CO2, lots of those also own a car, (which contributes CO2) lots of of those eat meats (which also breath CO2) and need a place to live (which removes vegitation that absorbs CO2).

...I'm not saying we need to do a Thanos (or a GameFreak) but wars, conflict, desises and poor health did help keep the numbers down and stopped us from, frankly, breeding like rabbits.

I'm not one for war or genocide, but it's sad to say that those will probably help the current situation - however without such an event happening, there is only one thing you can do to stop CO2 getting out of control in my eyes. Limit the number of road vehicals; ban cars from city centres meaning people have to walk or use public transport for short journeys, and invest in carbon recapture (Looking at you, America! Get out of your cars and get actual public transport! freedom dosen't mean you have to use a car for everything!). Infact... don't invest in it; just get it, money no option at this point. The technology is there but it's expensive; however people just need to work together and not worry about cost and just implement it for the benefit of everyone around the world. Carbon recapture works better then trees as they take forever to grow and take up more space for their effectiveness (not saying we shouldn't continue replanting them; just as a side thing to actual Carbon Recapture!).

Put Carbon Recapture plants in airports, shipping ports, high densisty livestock, city centres and other urban areas where there is lots of transportation and people move through or live; it's the only way I can see we will slow or stop global warming.

...that, or China and America get into a war which happens to use up a lot of man power, hits factories and powerplants, and during the proccess China fractures and splits up into independant states? -people will get hurt and I wouldn't want that, but if it happens, then... there is some benefit?

Wow... this journal got a bit dark and morbid, but it's true. I don't believe we will be able to do anything about global warming if we don't invest in carbon recapture now and deal with China and the USA.

On a happier note; I got a brand new icon from my favorite artist,  Mrrrn, for Christmas! She is an amazing artist and you should definatly check her out and comission her! (Just don't steal her YCHs and time away from me too much ;) )

Merry Christmas and have a happy new year!

As you might have seen recently in my gallery, I've recently comissioned a number of pictures with a dark red underbelly and claws instead of my previous grey underbelly and claws.
Some pictures I've even had recoloured to test out the new colour scheme and to direclty compare with the old; these recoloured pictures were done my the amazing  Artararam.

I need your help to decide whether I should fully change to the new red colouration or remain iwh the old grey one. The main reason why I am looking to possibly swap is because I've yet to see someone else with a black avian fursona and red claws and/or underbelly; everyone seems to have the same black feathers with black or grey claws and underbelly, so changing to the new design will make me look more unique.

I accidentlly stumbled upon the idea of a red underbelly and claws when playing about on my tablet and mistakenly filled my whole chest red isntead of adding some red markings; I then thought "that looks cool; I wonder how I would look if I also did the claws" and did so and so that's how I ended up with https://www.furaffinity.net/view/32689288/

Please let me know what you think!

Here are some pictures for comparision:

Avory 2016 reference: Red & Grey
Poolside: Red & Grey
Three for Three: Red & Grey
Four in a Field: Red & Grey
How do I look?: Red
Ultimate Power: Red
Midnight: Red
To Taste One's Self: Grey
A Seat At The Spa: Grey
Deep In A Lion: Grey

Resting his head on the knuckle of his hand propped up on the black desk deep in thought; his burgundy shirt unbuttoned entirely. His slouch emphasised by the other resting hand resting balled on his hip pulling the shirt away from him. He stared at the blank surface in front of him pitch as the void. Black and smooth with no imperfections or reflections. Silence. Peace. Nothingness.

Just cold vastness of empty space.

Stagnant. At a standstill. Time passes for what feels forever, but there is no time at all. Has time really passed if nothing has happened? Can something happen if time never did pass? Can there be a forever if there is not time? Would there really be time if there was only forever?

If there was nothing. How can there be everything? If everything must come from something, then how could anything exist? What came before the first thing? Can we see from what was the last thing? What if there was nothing at the start, only everything? But if everything was at the start, how could anything be created? Everything must have been balanced? But there must have been unbalance to cause creation.

The universe is expanding… it all came from one point… but what was this one point? Atoms… Hadrons... Quarks? …smaller?

He pauses for a moment before coming to the biggest question. What is the purpose of life?

What is the point of it? Life is an accident… a creation of unbalance… a creation of things clumping together and… just… working. Life creates new life. Life reproduces. Life… takes things in, and makes new things… Life… grows the universe. What is life?

Blood and nerves pumping around the body? What about single-cell organisms? What about plants? What about… a planet? -magma moving through conventional currents taking material and matter and turning it into mineral. A star? A huge ball of gaseous matter with currents taking in matter and expelling it out into space. Blackholes… absorbing all matter compressing it until it’s absolute most-dense; when the quarks -or smaller- cannot compress anymore. Theoretically a blackhole can collapse… but long after the end of the universe when it finally has enough matter. But what if… what if when black holes absorb each other… and each other… until only one is left? One single black hole that has consumed everything. Radiating away until even the radiation cannot escape as the fabric of the universe has been shrunk to the very circumference of the event horizon… Only then that a blackhole will finally have enough matter to collapse and implode… Because there is nothing more; nothing else it can absorb. Once the last… piece… is absolutely dense; the gravity will implode creating this fictitious “big bang”. Only for time to start over.

What came first? The chicken or the egg? The universe or the black hole?

What is the purpose of life? If it all ends up being consumed and thrown out? There is no purpose. But life, is what you make of it. Life is about change. Life is about taking something and making it different. Like is about making an impact on the world – for better or worse. Life is about a story of coming from nothing, making something of it and then leaving your mark whether others see it or not. A sense of achievement, not for others, but yourself. "I did that – that was my life." Yes there are 8 billion people on this planet and there have been billions before us and then there has been billions of years of history before that. Yes, you are tiny and insignificant. But together we are oh so important. Together we write the history of the universe with the stars and planets and blackholes around us. If one person feels they are not important, then that is not true. For if you feel that you do not mean anything and that you feel that you should not exist; then what is the point of anyone else? Or anything else? We all have a start, and we all have an end. You existed whether you like it or not – you can’t undo that. You are part of history. You are part of the universe - you are part of something big – so big, that nothing can ever get bigger than this.

So, go out there, and play your part. Make a change in your life. Make a change to the people and world around you. So when your mind drifts off, wherever that may be after it all, you can look back and say; “That was my part in history”.

Following on from my "2018 in reflection" series that I did in December of last year; I decided to continue my holiday experiences as soon as I can on my return. Unfortunately my first holiday of of 2019 does not start the series well. Simply put; it was trash.

If I had to sum up Palermo in three words, they would be; Trash, Parking and Yuck.

You may have already noticed my constant use of the very American word "trash", as opposed to the more British word of "rubbish", simply because I can say that Palermo was trashy. Where ever you looked there was rubbish; bins overflowing blowing rubbish everywhere like an artificial blossom or lining the streets in huge heaps or spread across like bed or cover; sure along the 2 main shopping streets this wasn't so evident but everywhere else you had to go it was frankly disgusting; some streets you had no choice but to walk upon it. I even saw a dead pigeon casually laying on the pavement that must of died of ingesting some of the rubbish and a presumed dead middle aged man; possible also passing from the rubbish.

Not only that the rubbish covered most Palermo, there was also a very noticeable amount of soot and dirt on the buildings, monuments, everywhere as if nothing has ever been cleaned or looked after; even the historical buildings, churches and monuments were covered in a film of dirt of which some buildings were almost entirely black. This might of been enhanced by the sheer number of cars in Palermo but nevertheless nothing had been cleaned. You would of thought they would at least try to keep their churches, monuments and other significant buildings clean, surely? But no.

Back onto the topic of cars; I know Italians love their cars and after being to fellow Italian city, Naples, I thought I would have seen the worst of the automobile, but I was wrong. Where Naples had 24-7 congestion; to the point which I believe it's their job nine-till-five to leave their house, go to their car parked in traffic, get into said car, become an angry Italian beeping their horn waving hands making gestures and faces before getting out their car and going home for the day, only to repeat the following day without every actually moving their cars (quite a tangent, but honestly not an exaggeration in some places in Naples!). Palermo on the other hand had moving traffic, outside rush hour, it was always busy but eventually moving. One thing that Italy does get you to exercise well is your balls; stepping out into the middle of the street in front of moving cars to cross a road because the marked crossings are only advisory, and a green light at a crossroad still means cars turning into your path will still get as close to you as possible whilst you cross the road. But you get use to that in Italy... The worst bit about the cars is the sheer amount of parked cars; everywhere that is not a walking-only street has cars parked on it either side, sometimes double-parked. Car parks turn into a huge gridlock akin to the "Rush Hour" puzzle board game with cars crammed into every nook and cranny making you question how people get into their cars, let alone drive out of the car park. I would say that the pavement is "advisory" on where to talk on the street but sometimes it just vanishes under someone's house making you just walk in the road, or, whenever there is a free bit of pavement it's either completely covered in rubbish or used as a parking space. Everywhere not blocked off with bollards just becomes a place to park a car with no one enforcing any fines.

The final of three words I used to describe Palermo was "Yuck". This is odd when describing Italy... When I told my colleagues that I was going to Palermo on holiday people would ask what there is to see or do there; to which I would respond with the famous Quattro Canti and not much else, stating that "either way, it's Italy, so there will at least be great food that will make the week-long trip worth while." But oh god I was wrong... Every time I've been to Italy; from Venice to Amalfi to Sicily previously, there had always been amazing food, divine and Italian. ...but Palermo was just something else... I've never been so... disappointed mostly? True. I am sure some of that food was not fresh; you can certainly taste store-bought pasta apart from fresh pasta, but also the pizzas, seafood, bruschetta and caprese were just so increasingly disappointing compared to other parts of Italy or even worse then the average British counterpart. How can you even muck up caprese, let alone bruschetta!? But "disappointing" doesn't explain the very blunt "Yuck" I used. One night I ordered a lasagne from one restaurant (one of the two more expensive ones we went to) only to be served what I can only describe as an "ASDA Smart Price store-bought lasagne" that was pitch black and burnt on the top; thrown lopsided onto a plate exposing it's now rubbery lower pasta sheets from the extreme cooking and still charged us for it!? WTF!?!? That top lasagne sheet, with what was presumably the white cheese sauce thematically fused to it, was so burnt that I am sure it was nearly 100% carbon and was so hard you could pretend it was actually in the process of becoming a diamond!

There was one pleasent restaurant that we ended up returning to for a total of three nights; and was surprisingly the cheapest; but the hospitality and presentation far out performed every other restaurant we visited. This was the "Ristorante Da Bacco" down a side street opposite the Teatro Massimo of which I would recommend the Pasta Fresca al Pesto Fresco (Basil pesto, almond, pistachio and parsley pasta).

I've not even got to the point of recommending sights to visit yet; but the list is slim as Palermo is very disappointing when optimistic:

The Convent - Catacombe dei Cappuccini was probably the most... interesting place I went to. Staring at the face of death countless times over, sometimes as bone, sometimes as a disturbing shrink-rapped flesh, sometimes they still even had hair on their hair or on their jaw... All still dressed, the most concerning are in fact the ones in long black robes with their faces hidden making your skin crawl making you wonder what is beneath... A once in a life-time experience; I won't be visiting any more catacombs any time soon.

The Teatro Politeama Garibaldi and Teatro Massimo were certainly impressive from the outside which honoured a few pictures.

However the Cattedrale di Palermo was by far the most beautiful structure in Palermo with it's beautiful architecture from the gold and blue domes and glass, arches, merlons, towers and clock, not to mention tidy plaza out front. I wish I could see more of the inside of the building rather then just the main hall as they offer you tickets to the crypt, treasury and roof. Unfortunately my father who was leading the trip did not wish to pay to visit them.

I took one look at the Norman Palace from the outside and left; it looks so underwhelming and insignificant; in fact the first time I saw it I could not tell it apart from any other building in Palermo because of the dirtiness and no care for it.

The local food market between Chiesa del Carmine Maggiore and the Chiesa San Antonio di Padova was quite beautiful and interesting with a vast array of food from tiny wild strawberries to giant tuna the size of sharks, also there is a similar market by Porta Carini.

If you are incredibly bored; you can visit the Roccella shopping centre for a number of shops; I recommend going to the Wild West restaurant for a delicious French Burger that is just so delicious and perfect; the best meal of the holiday (which is an huge shame for Italy).

But by far the best thing you can do when visiting Palermo is to go visit Mondello instead. It's far less busy, far less dirty, and the food is so much better and cheaper. Treat yourself to a proper seedy fragola gelato (Strawberry Ice-cream) Le Lunette and sit on the clean beach enjoying the time just pass by...

So my final verdict on Palermo is... simply don't go. Don't waste your money. Go to somewhere else much better in Sicily instead such as Cefalù, Taormina or even the undiscovered coastal town of Riposto.



PS. Try arancini, it's delicious!
PPS. Don't try cannoli if you don't like ricotta cheese in your deserts.

I passed my Driving Tests this year and got my Driving Licence! Yay!~
Other then that nothing else really happened in the latter half of this year. ...other then getting a tonne of YCHs which I'm now kinda regretting... However I do have some more ideas of proper art; so hopefully I can stave off the urge in order to get something more personal and meaningful. (Not saying that the YCHs are bad, of course)

As for my third and last holiday this year; I travelled to Riga, Latvia, with my close friend  Foxhound1710 at the beginning of this December. It was a nice break away from work in the snowy and cultural city. Although getting there was a pain, for both of us.

Spire (Foxhound1710) had arrived in Riga before me but his case was supposedly lost whilst connecting flights.

I on the other-hand was held up at London-Heathrow airport because the baggage staff were taking their sweet-ass-time loading the bags onto the plane, only for me to miss my connecting flight from Warsaw to Riga. The airline staff managed to get me onto another pair of flights that will get me to Riga but took me via Stockholm, Sweden, for a couple of hours. The Swedes were so nice, polite and chatty (and handsome)!

Despite an hours walk from one end of Stockholm airport to the other I still had an hour to kill and ended up in one of the airport's private lounges and tried Swedish meatballs for the first time! They were delicious~! I also had some delicious leak and potato soup to warm me up before getting on my last flight from Stockholm to Riga.

Finally I arrived in Riga International Airport tired and weary, wanting to simply find Spire who had been waiting for me for over 7 hours, only to find out that my suitcase was also lost. Fed up at this point and not believing the reasoning the staff gave (he sounded like he couldn't be ass'd either) I filled out my details for the bag to be delivered to the hotel were we would be staying. Finally meeting up with Spire (who somehow got lost in the airport?) we filled out his documents too before getting a taxi to the hotel; both knackered.

The following morning Spire's case turned up; but mine was still missing; It was on the afternoon of the fourth day before it arrived - nearly 4 full days of wearing the exact same clothes. (The one time I decide not to pack 1 set of clothes in my hand luggage for this very reason...)

However, as I said before, the holiday ended up a delight!



So here are my recommendations:

- On the first day we got up early and left for the train station to get on the earliest training possible to Siguda. We had some trouble finding the correct train to get on as we were told "11", however we were confused as there only 5 or so platforms. It turns out that we needed "line 11" which was right back at the front of the station which we had walked passed previously. Anyhow, The train was large, wide and slow; but it was on time and rediculously cheap at only €1.19 each. We kept stopping every now and then at stops at tiny little settlements in the middle of the snowy forest with no real platform. It was very unusual but quite intriguing. Finally arriving at Sigulda which took about an hour and a half, we made our way to the Sigulda Bobsleigh Track to see that it wasn't open yet and we would have to come back later. (Unfortunately when we did come back later the track was closed for preparations for the day after and were never able to ride it.)

- We walked through snowy Sigulda Castle Of The Livonian Order In Sigulda. Typically with our luck the manor and new castle were closed for repairs and were wrapped in ugly scaffolding. However we were still able to walk past and pay to enter the ruins of the old castle. This was quite cheap too. Walking around the courtyard looking up at the old masonry was quite inspiring. The Walls was supported by wood to try and hold the ruins together but it was very clean and well preserved. Going into the main gate house there were a few things to see including a very small but ominous room with a giant sword and throne.

- Finishing up at the first castle we began to make our way down the hill into the Gauja Valley following the path along the main road north out of Sigulda. At no point did this part of the walk feel long or tiresome; for me it was beautiful with the fresh white snow covering the path and fields by alpine trees and flora.

- We eventually found our next stop in the form of Gutman's Cave at the bottom of the valley. This large cave made of sandstone with a spring of fresh water is home to many old and new carvings of peoples names. It may not appear like much but when you consider how old some of the carvings might be (although some have been re-carved after being warn away) then it is also a awe-inspiring and a nice stop on the way to Turaida.

- The walk to Turaida from the cave did not seem particularly safe; walking along the side of the main road with no real pathway insight up the other side of the valley to the Turaida Museum Reserve. We could of honestly spend all day here but with the very little winter daylight left and the hope to go on the bobsleigh later (which we were not aware on that day was closed) we walked straight to the pretty pink brick Turaida Castle. Despite being newer I felt the castle had more charm and beauty to it then it's counterpart in Sigulda. That and there was many displays and detailed history too! Not to mention that every wall and window and door and stone had a plaque on it telling you what it is and why it's there. The displays also told you a lot about the history of Latvia and Livonia too from it's founding, to it's faith, to it's fall under Poland-Lithuania, Russia, Sweden and Germany. After reading every single word in the castle we made our way back to Sigulda via local bus (A mini-van driven by someone with no English what-so-ever and we struggled to find change for him after he rejected notes). To find that the bobsleigh was closed and then decided to make our way back to the station to return to Riga. (Perhaps a blessing in disguise as we might of missed the train back if we did go bobsledding).

- The Freedom monument is probably the most iconic part of Riga. This tall tower with a lady holding three stars sits between two pedestrian roads in the middle of park and garden to the north east of the old city straddling the Pilsētas kanāls (City canal) which acted as a moat up to the point of modern gunpowder when the city walls were removed due to the futility of them against arms. There are many green spaces along this canal you can see with their own inherent beauty. They all have many sculptures and statues in them to honer important historical figures.

- I had booked a guided tour of Riga Central Market with Raami Travel for a small group, however (luckily) it was only the two of us on the tour so we managed to have a more personal experience! We were shown around 4 of the 5 converted airship hangers (the 5th was being renovated so was closed to the public) eating grey beans (Delicious~ I'll be making this at home as a side), borscht, pickled herring beetroot salad (sounds disgusting but it's very nice! Can't have too much at once though), caraway seed cheese, pickled pumpkin (surprisingly delicious!), gherkins (Very common in the UK and under that name but also known as "pickled cucumbers" to most or simply "pickles" in the USA), local Latvian pastries, rye bread and rye butter. Once the very delicious and informative tour was complete I bought myself a Matryoshka, honey-wax candle (secret Santa present), 1kg each of wild cherry black tea and white Christmas tea before heading back to the room to go into a Latvian food comma. (I also finally got my suitcase this afternoon so could finally change out of my 4 day old clothes)

- Golden Coffee was a traditional Latvian restaurant our tour guide from the market recommended us when I asked. Found between the house of the Blackheads and Saint Peter's Church, this very small restaurant is catered heavily for tourists; the menus point out exactly what traditional foods and drinks they serve and have a TV display detailing all the sights to see in Riga. The food was great and an ok price and I would really recommend anyone travelling to Riga to visit Golden Coffee to try some more local traditional foods.

- Double Coffee can be found all over Riga. I'm not sure if it's specific to Latvia or if it's elsewhere in Europe; but you do see this chain here where everywhere you look (but perhaps note quite as much as Narvesen - the local corner shop) but for good reason. These little cafe-restaurant-bars are always full to the brim whatever time of day. They have a vast array of food and drink from sandwiches, snacks, starters, pizzas, mains and desert to soft drinks, coffees, beer and cocktails. The prices are also very low so if you went back every day for dinner there will always be something else you want to try without having the break the bank.

- Although we didn't go into the House of the Blackheads we did visit the plaza it sits on and observe the large very decorative building. Along side the Freedom Monument, and perhaps starting to sit in the shadow, this building has plenty of history behind it; one story of which describes the act of the inhabitants erecting a pine tree in-front of the building and decorating it in flowers to create the first ever recorded Christmas tree. That evening they bunt it down to ash - luckily something we didn't copy today.

- It was very... silent? I can't really find a word to describe the Riga Ghetto and Latvian Holocaust Museum but I wouldn't say it's upsetting. I love to learn about history and I am fully aware of what the Nazis did so I don't quite feel as shocked as I once would have been had I not been bombarded with it all at school, but this place is defiantly a must see. Here you see personal stories about the people who got caught up the in the holocaust and learn how Riga played a part in it. There is also a whole room dedicated about the Ottoman cleansing of Armenians which I did not know of until that day. The museum is entirely free to which you can choose to donate via any of the many donation boxes dotted around. There is a lot of reading involved but tells you of a key and disturbing part of Riga's history.

- We were running out of things to do after the KGB museum was closed (still unsure if it was temporary or permanently closed) so we had to look up other alternatives to keep our interest. This lead us to the Latvian Railway History Museum. Now I love trains. I would of happily gone to this museum but I didn't know if Spire would hold the same interest; apparently he did! So we left the old city and walked across the Akmens Tilts bridge and past the "Castle of Light" library to the Railway Museum. Unfortunately all of the indoor attractions were all in Latvian so we couldn't read and understand them; however I was at least able to describe some of the things to Spire from my own railway knowledge to there was some sort of context. However out doors there were many large locomotives, carriages and utility vehicles used on Latvian rails. These signs were all in English so we could easily learn about them; why they where the way they were, where the came from and what they were used for. If you also like trains then spend a few hours here; I think the outdoor area is free.

- We walked along Jacob's Barracks past the Latvian War Museum to see that it was unfortunately closed; so we were quite surprised to see that on our last full day that it was open. Like the Holocaust museum, this is completely free and appreciate donations. The museum is on many floors and tells you the story of Latvia, Livonia, Sweden and Russia's influence and then a whole floor on WW1 and WW2 with lots of models, uniforms, weapons and other artifices to see. We unfortunately ran out of time here as the museum closed early. Defiantly worth seeing!



So finally; I also have booked my next 2 holidays! I'm first going back to Sicily, Italy, in May (Specifically, Palermo) and then off to Tel Aviv, Israel, in July to see Jerusalem and the Dead Sea!
I might also be going to Myanmar (Burma) to go on a boat trip up the Irrawaddy River hosted by my two favorite Youtubers, Kara & Nate! However nothing is confirmed yet and they are only getting a feel on the numbers to host the tour.


Wow... This journal is very long; but probably because it's more recent I can recall more. This has also taken my 3 days to write this and now it's Boxing day (day after Christmas).
So I hope you all had a very nice Christmas and have a happy new year!

Not much happened between May and July, but I did receive my Civ6 leader model and animation this summer from the amazing  Kemonokun!
Click here for the image on FurAffinity

Click here for the animation on Youtube

Unfortunately I have, yet again, given up on trying to code the mod and get anything to work (the mod doesn't even seem to show in the leader screen for me to test...)
So, again, the mod is on hold now, especially with the expansion; Gathering Storm, is coming out in February and introduces lots of climate change mechanics, world congress and future era which may work well with my leader. (bonuses to Seasteads, Sea Walls and the World Congress) But that can wait until I've played around with the expansion and it's mechanics before looking back at my hopeless mod...

In other news...

For my second holiday of the year, I visited the wonderful and prosperous island city state of Singapore with my family. Just like Vancouver, Singapore is a big city that has a lot of greenery and diverse cultures; however instead of being cool and North American, it's very tropical and East Asian.




Here are my recommendations:

- The Gardens by the Bay is defiantly one of the two most iconic attractions in Singapore. The huge $1,035,000,000 garden is both beautiful and impressive. The garden features a lake, ponds, groves, sculptures, flowers and specific cultural gardens (such as the Colonial, Chinese and Indian Gardens to name a few). But the highlights are the Supertrees and the Flower Dome and Cloud Forest conservatories. The two conservatories may seem expensive to enter but are well worth the cost as the plants, trees, artwork and other displays are awe-inspiring. The cloud forest also boasts the tallest indoor waterfall; of which it seems small on the ground but if you go all the way up to the top of the mountain, you won't believe how high up it is. The Supertrees are tall colourful chimney stacks covered in flowers and solar panels on their top that help exhaust the fumes from the conservatories' cooling systems. At night the trees light up in bright lights accompanied by music for a fabulous performance (although be warned; until they finish the Gardens by the Bay MRT station in 2021 there is mad rush to the Bayfront station bottle necking up a tight set of stairs before going through the Marina Bay Sands - you might want to find an alternative route to the north or the south; but don't go direct or you might be stuck under some's foot.)

- The Marina Bay Sands was world's most expensive standalone casino property at $8 billion (SGD) when it opened up in 2010 and has been one of the most iconic buildings in the world and probably the most famous infinity pool which a lot of people do not know the name of. I was brave enough to pay for a 3 course lunch for 4 at Cé La Vi restaurant on top, it did cost me about £300 including drinks... but I think it was worth it; it was certainly a one off experience I enjoyed. The building it's self is remarkably beautiful and the endless floors of shops and the gondolas floating on the bottom in doors.

- As a big current/modern F1 one of my highlights was visiting the Marina Bay Street Circuit. The streets of Singapore still had the flood light rigs up on the streets used for the race I followed and recalled each corner of the circuit and overtakes from each of the previous years, especially the year before (2017) which was the most amazing race in the rain. Walking along Raffles Avenue past "The Float @ Marina Bay" seeing the last 4 corners, the coloured Singapore concrete and fences, the Singapore Airways logos on the ground, the cockpit entrance, the pitlane and the grid... I felt like a child on Christmas morning. I could not stop smiling for the whole day. ...and remembering how I felt back then; I can't stop smiling again. (Who knew you could feel so happy about sport?)

- Clarke Quay is definitely the tourist trap for food - a trap that my family kept finding ourselves in. The food is very expensive, really bad quality and is not traditional to Singapore, but it is a wonderful place to wonder through at night where the river, boats and bridges are lit up, but covered walkway above Clarke and Read Streets are also incredibly pretty.

- Quite the the opposite of Clarke Quay, Food Republic is a chain of indoor Hawker Markets which act as indoor food courts with incredibly cheap but incredibly tasty food from Singapore and other areas in East Asia. Here I recommend absolutely everything, but the chicken rice (The national dish), Satay, Bandung (essentially rose milkshake) and Lime and sour plum juice (SOOO NICE!!!).

- Fort Canning is a small park ontop of a hill surrounding one of the city's reservoirs. Although not spectacular the park appears to be one of the only places you can get a feel for settlements during the colonial era, years under Malacca and the peoples before.

- Sentosa Island is to Singapore what Southend-On-Sea is to London or Disney World is to Miami. Home to Universal Studios Singapore it is incredibly fun but, like all theme parks, incredibly busy and queues can last from 1-4hrs for such short rides. However I can vouch that the Cyclone Battlestar Galactica ride is one of the best roller-coasters I had been on; going on it 3 times and would happily go on it many more. However the most fun I've had in Singapore; and possible on any holiday that I can recall was on Sentosa's Skyline Luge. I booked this in advance but then looked up YouTube videos of it, and felt quite disappointed at what I saw; but when you are there riding that Luge at speed... I defiantly got my money's worth! Essentially the Luge is a long winding banked concrete path down a hill which you ride down on little more then a plastic sled with wheels and a handlebar. Pulling the handlebars towards you releases the brake so you can pick up speed and turning it allows you to steer. It's pretty simple; but when you are racing other people down the hill with great speed in the corners battling for position... I want to go again! It wasn't too much; I defiantly got my money's worth and it's not really that expensive at all! Like all things on Sentosa; you'll be waiting in the queue for a very long time, but unlike the majority of rides at Universal, it is defiantly worth it!

- Pulau Ubin is a small island to the north east of Singapore which you can only get to by a small boat from Changi Village. The island is almost entirely nature with the acceptation of the countless bike-rental shops by the jetty and a couple of small buildings spread far apart. The main attraction of this island lies in the fact that it is one great big nature bike trail; you can get to the island first thing in the morning; rent a bike for the whole day for very little money and spend all day going around all of the roads, dirt tracks, mud trails through forests, quarries, marsh and by lakes, coast and hills. Make sure to bring plenty of water and rent a mountain bike. Make sure the bike is comfortable before you set off too or you might find the experience unpleasantness like my mother, so we had to cut the ride short.

- Whatever city you go to, in whatever country, in whatever continent, there will always be a Chinatown. Sometimes they are a bit lacklustre like Vancouver's, but Singapore's is very vibrant, full of colour and shops and stools creeping out onto the street selling you cheap, 100% real fake goods for each and every purpose.



...oh. One last thing that I forgot... it's not a recommendation to try, but a recommendation to stay away from... Absolutely, at all costs, what ever you do, stay away from durians. THEY ARE EVIL!!! I have never ever tasted something so disgusting and revolting and vile in my life! WHY DO PEOPLE EAT IT!? If I could get rid of one thing forever it would be durians. Why are vanilla and bergamot going extinct? We should burn down and destroy all of the durian crop from the face of the earth and use that space to farm more vanilla and bergamot. And for those weird people for love durians; I invite you to my dustbin. You can take my dustbin, add a bunch of mouldy maggots to it, crack a few rotten eggs into it; leave it to ferment for a month in the hot summer's heat then pour it all into a blender to blend until it's nice a smooth; and then eat that instead.

...no, really. I'm being serious.

With little over 2 weeks left of 2018, I feel like I am at a good point to reflect on the year; and it's been a good year, definitely one of the better ones.

The beginning of the year was quite uneventful for me from what I can remember, picking up in May where I flew back out to Canada again to spend a couple of weeks with  Phoenixrage16 and  Lampshadeheadman in Vancouver which was wonderful. Vancouver was full of things to do and see, very green and close to nature through parks and gardens, full of diverse foods and flavours and so easy to get around. I easily recommend Vancouver as a holiday destination to anyone who would like to go and explore a city, gardens and food as opposed to sitting on a beach all day getting a tan.




My recommendations for Vancouver are:

- Go to Stanley Park and walk around the whole circumference. Take your time and take in the views of Downtown and sea of Yachts, North Vancouver, the Totems, Lions Gate Bridge, the west side which reminds you of how important sea freight is for the city filling the horizon before looping back around to the Lost Lagoon.

- Visit the hipster but gorgeous buildings of Gas Town and the Steam Clock.

- Take a tour at Granville Market with Vancouver Foodie Tours for one of the most informative but delicious experiences I have ever had in my life! You must try the original honey glazed doughnut at Lee's Donuts! It is simply the best doughnut in the world! (so impossibly light but sweet and delicious!) and try the Marsala Chai Tea at the Granville Island Tea Company Ltd!

- Try London Fog tea if you love Earl Grey, Vanilla and Cream. I don't know why I've never heard of it before but it was amazing and, especially with the name, it defiantly needs to be more popular over here in the UK! (Or even just exist over here)

- Walk along to the Vancouver Maritime Museum. Me and Volcan stumbled across this weird shape building and an old yellow submarine outside with no intention to go inside; but I am oh so glad I did as it was such an interesting an informative museum which's main feature is the St. Roch ship, Franklin Expedition and Northwest Passage opening up a whole new area of interest for me!

- The Museum of Anthropology is very out of the way of everything, sat in the University of British Colombia campus, but is defiantly worth the visit. If you come to Vancouver, this is a must see attraction, I regard it as one of the best museums in the world as the sear volume of exhibits and variety blew my mind. At first glance you would see that it focuses mostly on the peoples of Canada, most notably the Hadia people with well preserved originals and amazing recreations of their own possessions, but has an unbelievable collection or weapons, armour, idols, art, models, masks... everything from any corner of the world. Reaching from the Inuits of the north to the revolutionary costumes of Latin America. Portugal's "The Last Supper of Lucifer" to Indonesian ship models. Ancient Egyptian, Mycenaean and Byzantium jewellery to South African bottle cap art. This museum will inspire anyone love countries, cultures and history.

- For those who love Gardens, the Vandusen Gardens are a must see blooming with colour and curiosity everywhere you go, however one of my most magical moments was walking through a rough trail parallel to Rhododendron Walk between the bushes and trees in awe of all the colour, only to end up under the trees in the dark, before turning a corner and being bathed in pink and golden light under the canopy of the most beautiful pink Japanese cherry blossom tree. It was so simple but the wash of colours and light looking up from bellow was just awe inspiring, I tried to take a picture but it is contained to the edges of it's boarders. You really do need to be there to appreciate the simple beauty of the blue sky, pink blossom, golden light, red flowers, green leaves, dark brown bark... A true rainbow of nature.

- For bird lovers the Bloedel Floral Conservatory is sat in Queen Elizabeth Park and allows you to get so close to nature's most beautiful, cute, graceful and smart creatures with parrots, pheasants, canaries, tits and songbirds. Don't worry about this building being too hot inside; it's actually pretty cool. Once you're done with the beautiful birds, you then have the rest of the park to explore from it's quarries, love locks to rose gardens. And if you are lucky like me, you might meet humming bird, coming within arms reach.

- And finally, the best Ice Cream in the world. Rain or Shine Ice Cream is located on Cambie Street [annoyingly] half way between King Edward and Broadway-City Hall metro stations but always seems to be busy but for good reason, this small shop with the yellow sign serves the best ice-cream in the world! They make the simple waffle cones in front of you and have a vast array of unique and interesting flavours including London Fog, Malted Milk Chocolate and Blueberry Balsamic. I had the Honey Lavender and instantly regretted it; knowing that I will never taste heaven again.

As stated before... I recommend Vancouver, Canada, to anyone who wants to anything other then sit on a beach all day getting a tan and would happily go again to see what else it has to offer that I missed (and also to taste those heavenly doughnuts and ice cream again~ ...you know what... I might just book a flight just for to try them again~)

Stay turned for part 2 featuring my trip to Singapore!

So last week I finally passed my Driving Practical Test and have now got my full Driving Licence! I'm now looking for a 2nd hand car to buy and use as a run-around; a nice small Japanese car (because you can't beat Japanese cars) that is cheap to run and will last while I settle into the driving seat. ...I was looking at a year 2000 top of the range Daihatsu Sirion 1.0 +5dr in Yellow with all of the kit on it; it looked so cool like an old style rally car! Unfortunately it was sold today, a day before I was going to test drive it. (and hopefully buy it...)

In other news, I've been watching the new Doctor Who with Jodie Whittaker and it's been amazing! The first episode was probably the best inductions to a new doctor we've ever had since Christopher Eccleston; jumping straight into the plot and not taking half of the episode to actually become interesting (David was just laying in bed all episode, Matt was faffing about with food, Peter was moping around for more than half of the episode.). The 2nd episode... wasn't that good; it was just all about the lead up to the Tardis reveal; but it still manages to keep interest throughout (but will be forgotten in the long run). The 3rd episode... wow... I don't know how you can watch that and not cringe, recoil, grit your teeth and just want to leap out and punch them... (And if you don't feel this to even a lesser extent, then I am disgusted with you) The real wonder I have with this episode is that... how on Earth did the actors actually make it feel so real? They spoke so powerfully about their 'beliefs' as if they believed it themselves... but you come away from that episode thinking... some people are still like that today, and it's revolting. ...Aaaand then there is the fourth episode which I've just watched; and that is a HUGEEEEEEEEEE middle finger to Trump. Like... the biggest middle finger in the world. And I've seen some big middle fingers in my time; but I can honestly say that it's the biggest I've ever seen, demonstrably the greatest middle finger, trust me... Huge. Basically the last two episodes were two big middle fingers to America saying they need to get their act back together; or finally get it straight for the first time.

And to answer my question from last journal; in December I am travelling to Riga, Lativa, next and then Tel Aviv & Jerusalem, Israel, in July next year! However I'm still looking to going to another place at some point next year, but need someone to go with as my best friend  Phoenixrage16 is unable to join me. (Was intending to go to Montreal for the Canadian F1 Gran Prix) However, after doing Estonia last December and Latvia this December I think it's only right that I go to Lithuania next December to complete the Baltic trio.

Finally back from my latest holiday in Singapore I no longer have any more vacations abroad planned in future. So the Question is... Where should I go next?
This year I've been to Vancouver, Canada, to see Volcan and Korban again, and then Singapore, Singapore, with my family. This bring my me to the total of 22 countries! (I still count Hong Kong as a separate country from China, god damn it!)
But the issue I currently have with new destinations is having people to go with; if I'm not travelling with family then it's hard to find friends to go with; at present I've only been able to to go to Vancouver & Red Deer, Canada, because of Volcan and Korban, and Tallinn, Estonia, because of Zaaset but having someone to travel with to a destination and not a local would open up the list of possible destinations infinitely.

My current world travel map!



Also recently I've picked up a number of YCH commissions that have a significant "theme", so the tone of my uploads may change to the 'naughty side' for a while to see what people think. If I enjoy it and get a good response I might get more; but if I feel uncomfortable with it and get a bad response, then I will stop. So sorry in advance if you do not like NSFW art themes, this may only be temporary and if you are not fan of it then just please let me know, ignore it or use the SFW/NSFW filter button in the top right of the site.



And finally, Kemonokun has finally completed my Civilization VI's mod model and intro animation! (Click here for his upload) This amazing animation I hope will be able to make it's way into a Mod I'm making for the game featuring my fursona, Avory, as an alternative leader for England. I'm still currently having some difficulties with the coding but hope that I will be able to finish it soon. (And if anyone out there can help, please help! ^v^' )
I also hope to upload the animation and pictures here on my own FA gallery shortly, as well as the full resolution video on Youtube .

It is so strange when, on your brithday, you meet other people who share the same birthday with you.
On the train todaybto central London I overhead songs of "Happy Birthday", then when watching the England Vs Sweden Football Game outside a pub (It's coming home), the guy in front of me was celebrating his burthday too. And then when we went up The Shard (Tallest building in Europe outside Russia) ther was another birthday celebrator and then at the resturant, another.

Just now I also found out that Ringo Starr, one of the Beatles, also shares my birthday!

I always thought I would be special, having a "7/7/7" birthday, but aparently not, But I still think I am very lucky because of it. Let's hope that this luck carries through to Wednesday and Sunday too!

"The day we stop exploring is the day we commit ourselves to live in a stagnant world, devoid of curiosity, empty of dreams."
–Neil deGrasse Tyson



In short; this journal is just to let people know that's I've updated my "Profile ID" image to include Estonia and Tallinn as places I have now visited and decided to now include my top places I want to visit which are now in Blue.

Of course; I would love to visit everywhere in the world including the big names: Mexico, Brazil, South Africa, Egypt, Turky, Russia, India, Korea and Australia, but I wanted to highlight my biggest desires in Blue (I want to make it a top 5 countries, but I'm struggling to decide on the 5th).

So as it stands, this year I will be visiting:
- Vancouver, Canada
- Singapore, Singapore

And I have my heart set on:
- Machu Pitchu, Peru
- Kathmandu and Mt Everest Base Camp, Nepal
- Hanoi, Halong Bay and Son Doong, Vietnam
- Angkor Wat and Siem Reap, Cambodia

Of course I hate to go alone so I hope one day I can find that special someone to share my adventures and memories with, not through persuasion, but though love of travel. I hope I find them one day.



Journal Title quote from J.R.R. Tolkien