Escape

Running away... 

That's what my days are

Blocking you, blocking me,

I no longer want to see

My days, my routines,

The mind-numbing steps that fill each moment

Wash, rinse, repeat

Wake up, exist, do and do more, until... 

Until a moment I steal

A moment in which I grab my phone,

Click frantically on that little blue icon

And watch words fill my screen

And I dive in, maybe I'll read just a page, or even just a line,

But for that page, for that line, 

I'll be away

I'll be escaping

I won't be here, listening to the same sounds,

Hearing the same requests, 

Feeling the same needs, your needs that smother my life

I'll be in someone else's life,

In another story 

Where others are happy or unhappy

But where they will one day be happy

Because someone gave them that gift

I'll be away, with Malec and Charlie and Simon

Free... until time pierces my splendid isolation once more

Eddie Flynn

If you're like me and terribly confused you've come to the right place.

There are two authors writing books where the main character is called Eddie Flynn. Steve Cavanaugh and Michael Donovan. I haven't read any books by either of them. I saw the blurb for Fifty-fifty and thought I'd buy the first book in the series. Thereby started almost an hour of confusion (mostly because I didn't believe an two authors could have lead characters with the same name!)  

No one has said this clearly but that's what I deduce based on the fact that you either get sites mentioning one or the other. (Except for Amazon which is selling both sets of books) 

Also one of those authors is writing under a pseudonym so his real name popped up as the author of one series confusing me even more!

Steve Cavanaugh (real name Stephen Mearns) apparently writes about Eddie Flynn, the con man-turned-lawyer. 

His books are

The Cross (Eddie Flynn 0.5... So called because it is a novella) 

The Defence (Eddie Flynn 1)

The Plea (Eddie Flynn 2)

The Liar (Eddie Flynn 3) 

Thirteen (Eddie Flynn 4)

Fifty-fifty (Eddie Flynn 5)

Michael Donovan apparently writes about PI Eddie Flynn. 

Behind Closed Doors (PI Flynn 1)

The Devil's Snare (PI Flynn 2)

Cold Call (PI Flynn 3)

Slow Light (PI Flynn 4)

I'm going to read both series now... Will start with Steve cos fifty-fifty is what dragged me into this... But will come back and edit this post after I'm though a few. 

Netflix and me

Safe - On Season 1 Episode 5 and all I can say is how incompetent are these cops?!

Met Gala 2019 and GOT

Met Gala 2019 was clearly GOT inspired...

How else can you explain:

A tale of fire and ice

Missandei and Petyr Baelish

 

The night king

a white walker

a dragon

The Faceless Men

 

The gold bank

Ned Stark (Sorry, I couldn't resist)

What Theon Greyjoy is...

... and what he wants to be

One of the 'Sand-Snakes' .. (bastard daughters of Prince Oberyn Martell)

One more Missandei

Red priestess

Bonus: the red priestess' shadow baby all grown up 

Someone stole Tyrian's pants

High Sparrow living it up... tsk tsk

Catelyn Stark with a fancy wolf cloak

Arya mingling withe the adults

They even had furniture from Westeros!

A chandelier,

a photo frame,

and even a table cloth

and even a plucked raven

Apart from GOT, maybe it's just me binge-watching  Supernatural, but there did seem to be a lot of angel wings!

Some pretty

 

Some not!

Then there were the food items:

Candy cane

 

Candy floss

Half-eaten lemon

A tacky Chistmas tree

... and the Christmas tree ornament

Someone who thought the gala was a pool party

Two women offering their flowers to the world

 

 The Bow Wonders

 

 Feather dusters

 

A shag carpet

 The Lego dress



The magician's trick gone all wrong

 Here's one that's come straight from rolling in the leaves...



This one may have rolled through nuclear waste



Oh so not divine!

While many forgot their pants/skirts... this one forgot her top

And finally, a shoutout to the woman who used all the leftover scrap material

PS... if you want to see them all, here you go https://www.vogue.co.uk/gallery/met-gala-2019-dresses

Abe's Recipe for True Love

https://youtu.be/kHAEZQ4rRyw

How to love freely - without expectations etc?

R. The perfect vows should be "I like you let's see how it goes"
Love, the feeling of love, the moment when you are loving - you are in vibration with source. Anything less than that is less than that.
Loving that is painful, is thinking of an absence.
Thinking of any subject - if your approach is correct - it'll tie in to your source energy

the emotional scale - what feels like love - is what you perceive as alignment to what you are

Q. Why can't people let go?
R. The reason clinging is prevalent is the person now clinging was not in touch with their own emotions to being with. That is the ending. "In my physical body I didn't figure out I can focus myself into good. I believe I need to control circumstances. I come together with sometime - because we don't know each other both of us are in alignment. Because we are looking positively at each other and finding the best and looking the best and aligning with source which always looks for the best."

Then what happens is you have to hold yourself in that positive place. When you don't, i feel like a puppet. I say you don't make me feel the way you used to. It was never your job., You were just a catalyst.
Clinging is me hanging on to that dream or vision, which I remember from holding on to you.

Abe wants us to get so consciously aware that feeling is alignment or resisting. Further understand that with deliberate thought, incrementally, you can close that gap between where you are and where you want to be, or who you are and who you really are. Don't hold other people in that impossible position of having to perform in a way so you can feel better..Asking someone else to be different so you feel better is giving up your power. That's the pain in relationships. You;'re asking someone to do something no one else can do nobody can hold you as their object of attention completely enough to ensure that you're always in alignment. And if they did you'd be screaming and running and trying to get away from them cos you'd feel like you were suffocating you see.

A relationship becomes magnificent when you let the primary relationship you are seeking be the reln with you. When you say nothing is more imp than i feel good and on a myriad of subjects you practice bringing yourself up the scale so that you show yourself with a variety of conditions that you feel good.

People in a bad state should not find someone, If they do they'll find a vibrational match. Its better if you get into vibrational alignment with who you are and then let law of attraction find you someone else who is also in alignment. That kind of reln works. You do your own work and joyously dancing together.

Q. what is a soulmate?
R. - you meet someone with same vibrational intentions. You come forth in clusters. but everyone is your soulmate in some way or the other. When Esther and Jerry met they felt like coming home. If you meet someone that is of the same non-physical essence that you are and you are both vibrationally aligned you feel a connection - but that's cos you are aligned you meet people who are a match. Even people who you cant stand are soulmates. your awareness of yourself increases.
the best soulmates say - lets go forth and have a meaningful existence - lets be catalysts of desire and alignment and etc.

After posting came across the below on FB. Reminded me of another vid I heard today. https://youtu.be/d3JSW9d5DeI

FC Goa Vs Mumbai City FC

Okay match about to start. 7.31 already

Crowds pretty low here at Fatorda. Empty seats opposite.Has FC Goa magic really left Goa? Please give FC goa a chance.

The Gaurs are bright in their new orange kit. Pity the Mumbai team is in blue. I preferred the Gaurs in blue. Have to remember to cheer for orange

7.36 - FC Goa is attacking immediately. Mumbai's defence clusters and saves them.

Goa is definitely keen. Will they feel disheartened by the empty seats? It's definitely made me worry.

7.37 - Free kick to Goa.

7.39 - FC goa are mounting a strong attack. %^$@^ 8 (Coro) taken out by Mumbai 23 (Souvik Chakrabarti) We deserve a penalty!

Aah, penalty awarded

7.40 - Goa scores!!! 8 (Coro) does it again. Beautifully.

Ooh.. a challenge by Mumbai and little fracas but it comes to nothing.

7.46 = 23 (Edu Bedia) lost the ball during a run. Damn. He's so enthusiastic, a real live wire.

7.47 - Mumbai 7 (Nkufo Arnold) down

Mumbai is pushing. Fast play. Phew! Our goal keeper took a chance! Ran out and had to jump for it and my heart was in my mouth, but he successfully pushed the ball away and I could breath again.

7.48 -

FC Goa is making me hope. 4 (Hugo Adnan Boumous) was running alone along the back line with ball until Mumbai 6 (Milan) threw him down - or maybe he fell and I'm just paranoid. In any case FC Goa now have a corner.

Wasted corner.

7 (Mandar) shoots a parabola from almost mid midfield. Really Mandar? Why?

Mandar n Mumbai 7 are now mixing it up. Cards?

No cards.

7.55

Long kick to Coro who can't do much. He passes to 12 (Jackichand Singh) who tries to send it back to him or across to God knows who but loses it instead. Hmpf. We need to score one more.

Mumbai City FC try to open their score but they can't aim the ball between the posts. They are playing pretty badly today. Good for us.

8.00 - Valiant run and attempt

4 (Hugo Adnan Boumous) passes to Edu I think (but the goalie pushes it to his left)

8.02 - This is like tennis right now. My heads moving from one end of the ground to the other and back. Mumbai fell flat in one attempt and before I could mock them we returned the favour. And now they are trying again. Although I have to say our attempts look stronger. Their attempts - to put it not very politely - sucked. They shot right at our player. Mumbai City clearly don't have finishers.

(24) 8.04 Could have been a close call. Mumbai City almost score but 16 (Rafael Bastos) shot across. Quite pathetic.

8.05 Their attempt from the corner continues but our defence is holding strong.

Lol..Some of their players seem to be playing for us. Their team started moving the ball towards our goal and one of their players stood in the midfield facing his own goal and stopped the ball on his chest, bouncing it to our players who obviously ran with it. It's another matter that they were tripped up soon after.

8.07 Free kick time for 23 (Edu) but it falls flat.. Well, just over the top cross bar.

8.09 Mumbai City FC get a free kick from midfield almost -- of course it does them not an ounce of good.

8.10 - Passing the parcel -- 5-23-4-12 - stolen - back - stolen

8.13 - I could have sworn that Mumbai guy blocked the ball with his hands standing right on near the D … but since no one noticed (???) clearly it happened only in the alternate universe in which I was at that moment.

8.14 - Sure goal for FC Goa falls flat. Why did the Goa player pass instead of aim n shoot??

8.15 - So close for Goa again but over the bar --4 (Coro)I think

8.18 - 5 (Ahmed Jahouh)  pretty much kicks the feet out from under a guy but midfield and now fracas their side

8.19 - Unnecessary free kick given to Mumbai City FC but we are still safe.

1 min extra time only.

HALF TIME - Goa lead 1-0

I hope the second half is better. Or at least no worse.

My mind is drifting. Instead of watching the match I'm watching the Mumbai City players running up and down and warming up in front of the media box.Ours are doing lunges

8.44 - Finally action! Our goalie 13 (Mohammad Nawaz) saves one

An outright trip by Mumbai City. They are getting cranky.

8.46 - GOAL!!

(20) Seriton Fernandes outran his marker down the right side and sent in a pinpoint cross towards (12) Jackichand, who applied the finishing touch.

Everyone's happy but Sergio seems the happiest...

All the action now should be in the half that's away from me. Although it's far away and I can't see so clearly, I will sacrifice my watching pleasure. How noble am I.

Mumbai is substituting players now. Pretty sure it'll be useless.

ON - Mohammad Rafique

OFF - Milan Singh

8.49 - M 16 (Rafael Bastos) threw our 23 (Edu) down

Unfortunately no card.

8.50 Mumbai City are getting more desperate - 4 (Coro) is down now

Happy music playing from our band - seems inappropriate when Coro is down.

Ah hes up now

8.51 Play resumes

No it does not. The ref is moving one of the Mumbai City players. Yes yes.. move him right off the field. No? Oh well.

The attack is back on... and...

8.52 GOAL!!! Beautiful. 23 (Edu) earned it. He received the ball in midfield, and flicked it to Coro who played it right back to him. Edu took a shot with the outside of his left-foot, and smacked it into the left top corner of Amrinder's goal. The goalkeeper had no chance at all.

8.53 - Mumbai City push our guy down midfield, desperate times?

8.54 - Beautiful run by Mumbai but such a sad attempt. Wrong side of the post

8.58 - corner saved by our goalie

9.02 One more save. Nawaz is doing a good job!

9.05 - Yellow card. Goalkeeper Nawaz is booked for time-wasting. His third yellow card in three games. :-(

9.06 - Coro tripped in D. Ref refuses penalty! &$%$%^

Mumbai don't slow down - run and counter attack but luckily they are useless today.

9.10 - 23 (Edu) down again. No action.

9.12 - So close.... sigh

One more -- We are just trying our luck now

9.13 - One more substitution - more time wasting?Oh...

ON - Miguel Palanca Fernandez  

OFF - Ferran Corominas

8 (Coro) going off maybe good. Mumbai is getting more antsy and violent. We don't want Coro hurt.

9.15 - GOAL!!!! 11 (Miguel Palanca Fernandez) scores- Nicely done!

Manvir was running straight towards the goal when he passed to Minguel and I was cursing! Turns out he was right and I was wrong - hehehe... Minguel took his time when the ball was passed to him, and then scored. Simple and beautiful. Unnecessary worry.

9.16 - Long distance attempt by Pena almost bears fruit. Would have been so cool to be 5-0

9.19 - A Mumbai City player is down just outside our D and our crowd is doing a Mexican wave and booing him at the same time.

They have asked for a stretcher so maybe he's really hurt. Doubt it though.

9.21 - Fifth GOAL!

Just as Mumbai were about to get away from the defense, Jahouh slid in and got the ball. And then he plays a stunning cross to Palanca, who slotted it home past a helpless Ravi

4 minutes extra time but we don't need it and Mumbai City can't do anything with it either!

Goa 5 - Mumbai City 0

Life's Like that

So I was stressing drips and IVs and wound dressings and other unmentionables. Sheesh... I cannot understand nurses. Why would anyone willingly want to do this stuff.

Anyway, I pinged a friend for distraction before my 'shift' began. Guilt free, nothing owed conversation. Friend is travelling in Bombay n says its chaos. I'm full of sympathy. I'd hate to be travelling in Bombay.
Only thing is... Friend is headed for a fun party (with a common acquaintance) and does not mention this. Although its something we've had in common. It would be like me not mentioning I'm gonna go eat ice cream to the person I always eat ice cream with.

1. I don't get the secrecy
2. Once you've reached your destination make time for a friend who's pinged n clearly needs cheering you pos

Friend is an asshole me thinks... Lol

Where the hell are those new friends I'd ordered?!

Relationship restrictions?

I’ve never been a fan on restrictions within relationships. Even when it comes to exes. Oddly while I’ve never been comfortable staying friends with any of my exes, I’ve fought for the rights of people to stay friends with their exes. I truly believe you should only be in a relationship with someone you trust — if you cringe everytime they mention or meet an ex what does that say about your relationship?

So with that out of the way — let me come to something I learned over the last few years. While I still maintain that thou shalt not police your partner — I’ve now come to the conclusion that you should not be in a relationship with a partner who doesn’t police himself/herself and who doesn’t know when things are starting to go wrong.

Let’s talk about “R”. “R” and I have been friends for decades. (yes I’m that old) and last time we met (some years ago) he was happily married to a sweet lady. Or so I thought. I met him last year and a very strange tale emerged…

This is what he told me

R and his wife… let’s call her “A” were quite happy and had a child. “R” was a workaholic.

 (As the family business and responsibilities for a large joint family were on him I can’t blame him).

 Some time in 2014 or 2015 his wife got pregnant with a second child. She actually asked him if they should go for an abortion because as she put it, they got so little time to spend together as it was and if she had another child she could foresee that they would have no time at all. He told her she was being silly and they went ahead and had a lovely little boy. "R" was happy, but as he put it, he didn’t realise how lonely he was.

He’d been gregarious in college and had a large number of friends in Bombay where he lived and worked for many many years. But once he went home and took on the family business, he had no time for friends. And even if he made time there was no one he could connect with. His life was one long regime of hard work from dawn to late into the night.

Enter “B”. “B” was the wife of one of his friends. "R" met her a couple of times while in meetings with her husband. She was friendly and “R” — always a charmer — was super friendly as always.

They became friends on FB. On her b’day they both happened to be in Delhi. He wished her on FB and when he realised she was in the city on work and had no one to celebrate with, he bought her dinner. All pure and above board. He was always very cosmopolitan and has had many many female friends over the years without ever crossing any lines.

She was grateful for the dinner and insisted on repaying the favour once they were back home. She took him for coffee. He happened to mention that since he’s out of home all day and the home was a bit distant, he always eats soup at his desk.

(They are very well off and he could easily afford to get driver with food from home but he’d always felt it was easier to just order from a nearby restaurant.)

A few days later a delivery boy turned up at his office with a tiffin “B” had sent — with home cooked food — as her office was quite close by. He was touched and told her so and she started sending him a tiffin every day.

(Now this is where I turned to him and said that crossed the line.  He laughed and said oddly that’s when his wife got uncomfortable with the friendship too. But he didn’t see the danger at all.)

“R” had never kept any of these interactions secret from his wife, so when he got home and mentioned “B” had sent food, his wife just said, ‘something feels wrong. Maybe you shouldn’t get too close to her’. He pish poshed her concerns and laughed, cos he was so sure about himself and was so glad he had finally found a friend.

Time passed, B shared her sorrows with him. Said her husband was abusive. He consoled her, friendship blossomed into love. He realised he’d fallen in love with his ‘friend’ and went to his wife and told her he wanted a divorce. All she sadly said was, “I’d told you not to get close to her”…

“B” went to her husband and asked for a divorce too.

(Here where things didn’t follow the normal script…)

His wife, one of the sweetest women ever, said she didn’t want their children and family to know he was leaving her for another woman. It would make him look bad. She said they’d both take responsibility and say they were splitting because of mutual differences. He was relieved and told “B” to give him some months to settle all his affairs. Divorce is never simple when children are involved. He wanted to make sure his wife got a good job and make good provision for her and the children.

“B”, who had no children to worry about, moved back home with her parents.

Months passed and his respect and admiration for his wife kept increasing because of the way she behaved during the whole crisis. Meanwhile “B” got more and more annoyed that everything was taking so much time. She did not like the fact that he spoke to well of his wife too and turned into a shrew who harassed him.

To cut the long story short, "R" realised he was making the biggest mistake of his life. He managed to extricate himself from B who went back to her husband (surprising given the ‘abuse’ she claimed). He asked his wife to give him another chance. She pointed out that even if he didn’t love “B” it didn’t mean that he loved her, And she didn’t want to be with a man who didn’t truly love her. He asked her to give him a year to prove to himself and her that his renewed feelings were real.

Today, he and his wife are happier than ever before because they agree about some things: The affair wasn’t the cause of the end of the marriage. It resulted because the marriage hadn’t been working well and he was lonely and he overestimated his ability to stay loyal. Like he now says, “Just because women have thrown themselves at you all your life and you’ve never faltered, doesn’t mean it can’t happen to you.” Both “R” and “A” have realised that they need to work more on their marriage and making each other happy. The business is suffering a bit – but they now know there are worse things in life.

Why has this stuck in my head?

•           I realised the importance of a man who is in a relationship knowing when a friendship may cross a line. I don’t want to police anyone, so hopefully I find someone capable of self-policing
•           I realised the importance of a person’s sixth sense — sometimes we’re too close to a situation to judge accurately. It doesn’t hurt to listen to the people closest to us, whose interests coincide with ours
•           I realised the importance of handling situations with love and grace. If “A” had reacted like a typical wronged wife, “R” and “B” would have been unhappily together somewhere. (Cause I don’t think “B” had the capacity to make anyone happy. She was unhappy no matter where she was.) But because A truly believed that you cannot force love she was willing to set him free even though she still loved him.
•           I’m not saying this is the right way for everyone. If B had been a nicer woman I think “S” would have gone head with the divorce no matter how nice “A” was being. But I do think that “A”’s behaviour shows that she’s a woman who will find happiness anywhere.

Flags

There are four 'countries' of people..

Control
Perfectionist
Fun
Peace...

Perfectionists hurt themselves the most

Control hurt themselves and you

Fun people hurt you

Peace people are angels of delight... Lol

I hate extreme fun people cos they seem  harmless and you let your guard down and then your decision bites you in the ass!