#i make a point to support the smaller local suppliers and get only the local goods

[hiwaga-fucks-up]

it's that time of the year :'D

#gift giving is my love language #and i think that's a deep part of why i am so strongly anticapitalist #i should not have to pinch pennies and count how many times i can afford to eat a full lunch just to tell my friends i love them #work for it? i already do #half of my art is made for people #i shouldn't have to break my back to get RAW MATERIALS #the finished product? yes definitely #pay your goddam artists a living wage #but i'm just getting the raw materials. #i make a point to support the smaller local suppliers and get only the local goods #why tf is everything still so expensive #it shouldn't be! #it. should. not. be #i refuse to succumb to the spirit of consumerism #it may have it's sharp painful (petty. so so petty) claws on me but my soul will not break #one of these days i *will* be free from capitalism #hiwaga thoughtvomits #hiwaga thinks #in the tags lol

[amoveablejake]

Jake Reviews, Subject One: My Green Jacket

Thats right, this week’s long form piece is about a jacket. Stay with me caller.

A little while ago my girlfriend suggested that I introduce a segment on the blog where I review an assortment of items and things that I enjoy. I’ve been sitting on this idea for a while trying to think what would earn its place as the first piece to be cast under the spotlight and well as autumn truly has hit now, I thought my green jacket would be a fitting choice. 

Now, this green jacket. Lets be a bit more specific. It is a Swedish military jacket from the 60s/70s, and the one I own is actually a prototype for what would later be the real thing. The pockets on my jacket are placed slightly differently to the ‘real’ model and the buttons on mine were quickly changed once it was discovered that they rusted when exposed to the elements which is not ideal when you’re creating something for military issue. The jacket itself is a relatively long one coming down to my mid thigh (contain yourselves), it does indeed have those slightly rusted buttons (I’ll change that to aged, that sounds better) it also features a very high collar that I more often than not turn up, I know, I’m James Dean I can’t help it. It has a wide array of pockets on the outside, the back and on the inside, it is built to withstand all elements especially the wind, its green and it actually has arms that are long enough for me. In other words, its a dream and I can’t help but feel our union was written in the stars. Who would have guessed it, Swedish military clothes suppliers have finally found their target audience. Other than the army that is. 

So, how did I stumble across this jacket I hear you ask. Well, a couple years ago when I was in Berlin, oh boy do I miss that city, one Sunday morning my comrades and I decided to walk to a local flea market. I should say that before we continue that flea market was quite something, in the shadow of a local football stadium it had a wide assortment of goods and if our hand luggage would have allowed we would have brought a great deal of it back with us alas, that was not to be. But I’m not too heartbroken because, spoiler alert, a certain little green jacket was waiting for me. In fact, it found me straight away. Immediately after walking into the flea market we stumbled across a military surplus store huddled under a gazebo which also extended to being inside the back of a van. A gazebo and a van, the clear signs of a great fashion establishment I know. Whilst my aforementioned fellow travelers tried on their own jackets they had found, I locked my eyes on a lovely little green number. And little is the operative word there because when I tried it on, I looked ridiculous. Well, I didn’t actually get a look at myself but my friends laughing informed me of what I needed to know but whilst I slipped off a crushed dream the owner of the shop (a la gazebo) said to me ‘hold on’ and disappeared into the van. Before I knew what was going on he was reappearing holding a new green jacket, at first I wasn’t sure what was happening, was he going to make me wear an even smaller one to laugh at. Happily not, as he passed this jacket to me he said ‘bigger’ and this immediately made my day. I knew this was going to fit perfectly and I won’t toy with you here, it absolutely did.

Now, obviously here we would expect a twist. And that twist should be the price, after this wondrous salesman found me the perfect jacket and from the hidden depths of the van no less, I was sure he was going to slap a hefty price tag on it. And I was, well, I was wrong. He sold it to me for five euros. A modest sum that he said was because it was a prototype which needless to say made it all the more sweeter for me. I should mention here that my lovely relationship with this man was slightly soured when as I was leaving I spotted that he was also selling Sainsbury’s jackets. I pointed to them and laughed as they were in the military section. He then looked me up and down, zeroing in as I’m sure he knew the game was up and insisted they were military. Fearful that he would take my lovely new buy back I slipped on the jacket and quickly made my departure. I didn’t need to argue with him. I knew they were Sainsbury’s jackets. They were the right colour, the right cut and perhaps most importantly some would say, they had Sainsbury’s emblazoned on the back. Whose to say who was right.

Even though the rest of the trip in Berlin was unseasonably warm, I couldn’t help but keep the jacket on. Yes, I may have been slightly warm however, it felt perfect to wear it around the city and when we were walking around Berlin at night and I watched my compatriots shivering, well who was laughing then (I can’t leave it like that, we were all laughing, all the time, except for when one of them took a road light but thats another story for another day when the statute of limitations is up). Now, as I’ve had the jacket for a little over two years it is more special to me now than ever. It makes me think of a wonderful trip but not only that, it is a fantastic jacket that I wear all year round and it always has my back. That Sainsbury’s jacket wouldn’t, it may have looked cooler and tougher but it wouldn’t give me the same support. There are a few items throughout our lives that transcend the usual level of usefulness and we end up forming quite the bond with them. These items can be very silly, and perhaps meaningless to anyone else but to us they are truly special. Luckily for me, the green jacket is a joy for all and if you called it meaningless then some Swedish designers from the 60s will come to get you. 

As this is a review I suppose I should give the jacket some sort of score but how do you quantify true love. Well, lets try at least...If I had to score my jacket on a scale of a song written about Berlin I would give it a ‘Heroes’ by David Bowie. Thats right, ‘Heroes.’ ‘Heroes’. That should tell you all you need to know. 

A disclaimer: We will never see that score rating again, don’t add it to the canon. 

- Jake, a man who the moment he felt a slight chill in the autumnal air started wearing corduroy trousers and is painfully aware how rock and roll he is, 27/09/2020 

[thosewhoharvest]

Self-Sufficiency in the Time of Pandemic

With the current path that we as a planet are on, the facts are becoming increasingly obvious: times are going to get tough, in many ways. Climate Change warning flags, such as rising temperatures, more numerous and intense natural disasters and struggling ecosystems; and problems particular to the human population, such as resource depletion and the current COVID-19 outbreak we are currently facing; make it pretty clear that from here on out, humankind needs to be resourceful in order to survive.

We are busy going through something unprecedented in human history – there have been pandemics and widespread outbreaks before, but never has the world seen such a huge human population, nevermind one which is so interlinked across the globe. When you think about it, getting anxious during these times is only a natural and somewhat necessary response. But once one’s head begins to clear and the reality of the global situation sets in, the important questions begin to emerge: How am I going to look after myself and those I care about?

The measures we should all be taking to “flatten the curve” and slow the spread of the virus in time for healthcare systems to cope – physical distancing, washing our hands, and isolation, are all symptomatic responses to the current crisis. Don’t get me wrong, they are extremely important to how the pandemic unfolds, but I believe we should also be looking further down the line into the future. The world as we know it is changing before our very eyes, at a pace which is frighteningly tangible, and this pandemic is showing us a few key points, which can now no longer be denied:

We live in a global society – whether we like it, or not. This means that we ultimately need to work together, and respect our place in the collective human species, taking the rights of others to heart.

We are painfully dependent on ageing systems which are designed with profit as the key component, not necessarily human or planet welfare. Capitalism has engulfed all spheres of our society, to the point where the very things we need in order to survive – food, water, shelter and medicine, are turned into mechanisms through which we, as “consumers” can be drained for financial gain.

Our international leadership is largely inadequate and, whether on purpose or due to bureaucratic red tape, slow to act and respond in our time of need. Many countries have seen their governments refuse to react to the pandemic sufficiently, meaning that it wasn’t contained when it should and could have been, and as a result things have gotten much worse.

There are good (as in, really really good) everyday people out there who are willing to put their lives at risk to help others. Cashiers, paramedics, janitors, farmers, teachers, doctors, nurses, and many other overlooked professions are in fact the real heroes in this situation – and not the CEOs, directors or owners of companies. Without those who keep our society running through the day-to-day necessities, things would begin to crumble real fast.

Pandemics can affect everyone, regardless of their demographic. whether directly or indirectly, when something like this happens, it affects you – regardless of who you are. Stock markets and currencies are beginning to crash, companies are closing down, borders have been shut, and lockdowns are taking place. Things like these have far-reaching effects, which can be felt everywhere.

That being said, the planet can feel them too – just a few weeks of decreased human activity can lead to huge environmental improvements such as less pollution, returning wildlife and cleaner waters. This is just a little “sneak peak” at what is possible if we change our ways and try to live more harmoniously with nature.

Once this particular chapter of history subsides, how do we protect ourselves – personally, and on communal and global levels from similar things in the future? Ultimately, they are unavoidable and bound to happen again, be it in a different way or form. Once we accept that there are elements we cannot control, we can begin to look at what can be done to minimise our own suffering, and that of those in the same boat as us, at the hands of such disasters.

Look After Yourself: Strengthen That Immune System

This virus might subside, but chances are that it will be back, or another will take its place soon enough. So you need to fortify your body’s natural defences in order to give them the best chance of fending off such things. This boils down to one thing: keep healthy. Organic fruit and vegetables bring none of the poisons or chemicals that conventional produce carry with them, and often contain more vitamins and antioxidants. In particular, things like garlic, chillies, ginger, broccoli and citrus fruit are great turbo-chargers of the immune system. The fresher your food, the more nutrients it contains, and the better it is for you – so avoid canned or prepackaged produce where possible.

Local is Lekker

In South Africa, we have a saying that “Local is Lekker” – it essentially means that what comes from nearby is great; and it couldn’t be more on point or relevant than right now. By choosing things from local suppliers, businesses, farms, and organisations, you are not only decreasing reliance on the transportation system, but also “voting” with your coin against multinational corporations. Of course, the more local you can get, the better – ultimately, you should aim to be growing as much of your own food as possible. For some, this may mean growing a basil plant on their balcony, for others, perhaps a bed of tomatoes and garlic in their garden. Do what you can, with what you have. We recently began offering food garden design, consultation and establishing services, so if you are interested, please do contact us. Otherwise, support your local farmer and get to know where your food is coming from – it is a great step in not only learning how it’s grown, but also in becoming aware of what you are eating and how it reaches you. We deliver weekly boxes of our fresh organic produce to people nearby every week. Read more about or boxes, or order here.

Water is Life

Without water, we’re in trouble – just ask any Capetonian about the struggle. Having narrowly missed day zero, we can all attest to the importance of this liquid in our lives. Ensuring that you have a good supply or reserve of clean, drinkable water is of utmost importance. Setting up rainwater and dew harvesting can be done extremely easily and fairly cheaply – whether using small tanks to catch rainwater from gutters, catching your bathing water to water your garden.

Take Shelter

If you are among the lucky who have a good roof over their heads, take a moment to appreciate it, and consider how you can improve your dwelling. If there were to be a nearby disaster such as a flood or fire, how would it hold up, or perhaps instead, what is the contingency plan? If you are looking to set up a home somewhere, how can you construct it in such a way that it requires as little new resources as possible, and makes use of what is around? Small changes, such as using natural building materials, simple designs or even just taking note of the prevailing wind can have rather big impacts on a home, and are often overlooked.

Avoid Blackout

Technology plays a huge role in our lives – beyond communication and business, we rely on it to keep our food cold, light up our homes, drive our vehicles and make our stuff. All it takes is a little “Stage 2 Load-shedding” from your friendly neighbourhood power supplier to remind you how dependent we are on it. Although going entirely off-grid is becoming cheaper at a rapid rate, it is still largely out of the financial question for most people. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t take certain smaller measures in order to reduce your reliance on the grid. Depending on your financial position, you can take various steps – install a solar geyser to get electricity-free hot water on tap, buy or make simple solar lamps to light up your house (it’s really easy – look it up), sell your fridge and replace it with a gas alternative, or even just put together a little solar oven (we made one out of an old window and some planks – it cooks brownies like a charm!).

Wash Your Hands

Keeping things clean is a must. But don’t let that fool you into thinking that stockpiling toilet paper and hand sanitiser is necessary. Firstly, that just creates a shortage (do you see the self-fulfilling prophecy here?) and secondly, if worst came to worst and all the toilet paper in the world were to run out, you could use water like the entire continent of Asia is still largely doing after centuries). What is important is finding a way to maintain good hygiene and prevent illnesses from coming into your home and body. The good news is that soap, hand sanitiser, shampoo, and even general house cleaners are really easy to make with very simple, cheap and biodegradable ingredients. Good friends of ours, Guerrilla House, hold frequent soap-making workshops in Cape Town, and there is a plethora of online resources which can teach you how it’s done.

All these steps, however small they may be, add up and create a ripple effect, which although may seem immeasurable, can grow into a huge wave, given the right tide. So my advice is this: prepare yourself. Don’t freak out about the toilet paper, and don’t panic in general. But take time to think about how you can reduce not only your financial and environmental footprints, but also your reliance and dependence on the systems that surround you. And when you do need to depend on them, do it consciously and with full understanding and awareness of the implications it has. Be selective about how you “vote” with your spending – support those near to you, both geographically and socially speaking, and in so doing help build the network of interdependence we all need in order to survive. Because if the governments of the world aren’t going to look after all of us, then we will do it ourselves.

– Nevau, one of those who harvest

#self sufficiency #self sufficent #self sufficient living #self reliance #self reliant #independence #off-grid #prepper #doomsday preppers #pandemic #coronavirus #covid-19 #ThoseWhoHarvest #those who harvest #diy #organic farming #eat organic #grow organic #seedlings #seed tray #germination

[kaibuntsu]

The Dragon of No Words - #3

A/N: I’m gonna leave out links to avoid my post disappearing from search... But it’s on Wattpad too, if anyone prefers to read there.

     Avi watched his boss walk out of the Italian restaurant with another big fitness bag from inside the van. His tail wagged; it seemed like another successful deal had been struck.

     In his two months working for him, he slowly begun to learn of Emrys’ business model. The man clearly was not the biggest or the richest arms dealer in the world, or even in his country. How could he when he had never had someone work for him before Avi. Instead, the larger, richer arms dealers were his suppliers, and Avi learned throughout the months that most of them were Eamon’s connections. Emrys acted as some sort of a reseller for their weapons, with local gangs and smaller mafia families from neighboring countries as his target customers. And he did all that on his own, much Avi’s amazement.

     Emrys slid into the driver’s seat and threw the bag to Avi. “There, grab your share and leave the rest in the bag,” he said, turning on the engine. A small smile cracked on his face hearing the loud whooshing from Avi’s tail wagging intensely in excitement. He drove off to his next destination, one that Avi noticed he kept going to after he made profit. A graveyard.

     Avi had always chosen to stay inside the van whenever Emrys visited the graveyard, in case someone will spot him and his eight feet stature among the gravestones, but this time, he was curious. When Emrys opened the back side of the door to grab his share of the payment, Avi hopped out, to the red-head’s surprise.

     “What are you doing?” he asked.

     Avi simply pointed at the hill Emrys normally climbed up to and the small gesture alone was enough to inform him.

     “O-oh. Well…I guess you got bored of waiting in the van all the time, huh? Alright. But keep quiet.”

     Avi nodded and soon, followed his boss walking up the hill, upon which was a large tombstone with an elaborate shape of a monument. Unlike the other tombstones on the same hill, this one had two names on it, sharing the same last name: Gorman. Avi tilted his head to the side. It was a different last name to Emrys. He would ask questions, but he promised Emrys he would be quiet.

     Emrys was even more silent, refusing to say anything except a very hushed prayer as he knelt before the tombstone. The dragon could only watch and ponder in silence, but he sort of understood why Emrys frequented this place, even if he was still clueless to the relationship between his boss and the two people under the grave.

     After praying, Emrys finally turned to Avi, who expected some elaboration about the names on the tombstone. Instead, what came out of Emrys’ mouth was, “Can I have a moment alone, please?” Avi whimpered in protest, but Emrys was having none of it. “I…tend to get really sappy when visiting and I’m not yet comfortable to let you see my ugly side.”

     Avi sighed, which came out as a low droning sound, and moved a fist in a circular motion on his chest. He sort of figured out that his boss had a hard time trusting people, let alone a monster like him.

     “No need to be sorry. Maybe one day I’ll let you stick around until I’m done. If you keep up the good work, that is.” He dismissed the dragon, returning to the large monument tombstone once again while Avi flew down the hill back to the van.

     The dragon landed gently on top of the van and sat on its roof. He wasn’t thinking anything until he realized something from earlier. Did…did Emrys just understand what he just signed? He did say sorry, but how did he know? Avi rarely signed at home, opting to struggle with his handwriting which Emrys had a hard time to decipher. He was tempted to fly back to Emrys just to confirm, but again, he requested not to be disturbed. So now Avi had to sit on the van with curiosity brewing in his head.

     When Emrys walked back, Avi immediately signed asking to confirm his suspicion. The flurry of hand gestures nearly made Emrys sweat. “Uh, can we wait until we’re home? I don’t get any of that…” Emrys said, a tinge of awkwardness in his tone.

     Avi’s body slumped with disappointment. He supposed that was too big a wishful thinking expecting him to be able to sign fluently. He nodded and stepped inside the van, while Emrys entered the driver’s seat before tossing the empty bag of money to the seat beside him.

     The two came home to two voice messages on the phone. Emrys chose to ignore them, more focused on making food, but the curious Avi was more concerned about the ignored messages. He whimpered while pointing at the phone, fingers itched to press the play button. 

     Emrys sighed exasperatedly. “Whatever. Play it,” he said, tearing apart the bag containing huge pork ribs.

     And with more enthusiasm than necessary, Avi’s index finger made contact with the play button and a robotic voice started announcing the first voice message.

     “Salut, Emrys! It’s Vivi! You know, Vivian? You sister? I know it’s been a while since we talked, but I never forget to say: Happy birthday!”

     Avi’s spikes perked up at the last phrase, head whisking from the phone to the red-haired man, who looked back at the dragon with slightly blushing cheeks. Emrys quickly turned his face away, hiding away his embarrassment, but the voice message made it hard to do so.

     “It’s too bad you’re not at home. I was hoping we could chat for a bit, I want to know how you’re doing. I know you’re very busy, what with you working alone and all. You know, there’s no harm in taking a little vacation to Marseilles and visit your new niece. Well, take care, love. Call me back maybe? Bye.”

     Emrys coyly glanced towards where the phone was, only to see Avi wagging his tail so wildly he created a mini wind vortex from the motion alone. His face was directed straight towards him. Emrys didn’t need to see Avi’s eyes—if he had them—to know he was thrilled at the knowledge that today was his birthday. “M-my sister got the date wrong, I swear…”

     But the phone betrayed him by playing another voice message that came two hours after the previous one. “Happy birthday, Emrys!” another woman’s voice squealed from other side of the line, prompting the receiver to slap a hand over his face. “Oh, it’s Anna, by the way. I hope you don’t forget that you have other sisters other than Vivi. She just bragged about calling you first. It wasn’t my fault I was working! If she wasn’t on maternity leave, she would be late calling you too. Okay, I promised my boss I’ll be quick. Gotta go. Happy birthday, again! Love you!”

     Finally. No more voice messages. 

     Avi rushed to the kitchen counter, body language brimming with excitement with how his tail kept wagging and the spikes on his back rattling. He moved back a bit just so he could make gestures, starting with gently clapping his hands twice and followed by two subsequent gestures. He repeated a couple of times more slowly.

     “Is that…how you sign ‘happy birthday’?” Emrys asked, hesitantly. The colors on his cheeks spread further to his face. Avi nodded vigorously, mouth opening slightly in a toothy smile. “Well, I…” Emrys moved his hand to touch his chin and then move it outward. “Thanks…. Did I do that right?”

     Avi made a rumbly, bassy “Ooh!” sound, his tail wagging intensified. He nodded to confirm, purring contently.

     “I’m not that good at it yet, but at least I know the basic greetings. Still trying to memorize how to sign the alphabet.” Emrys’ index finger scratched a nonexistent itch on his cheek, face warming up watching how pleased and proud Avi seemed after his very small demonstration. The dragon landed a hand on his lean shoulder, while the other hand gave him a thumb’s up. He couldn’t stop a small chuckle from escaping his mouth. “I appreciate your support. I promise I’ll be better next time. Hey now, you’ll hit my furniture if you keep wagging your log of a tail that hard.”

     Avi collected his tail into his arms and hugged it, but he couldn’t stop the last five inches of it from wagging wagging. Learning that his boss had spent some time to learn some sign language filled him with unbridled joy. His chest kept vibrating with bass purrs, even as he entered the kitchen area to offer assistance with cooking. Emrys planned to make some simple grilled pork ribs, but looking at Avi, he found a new idea. He instructed his draconic employee to gently blow fire over the ribs, making sure not to burn it, while he flipped and turned the meat to its other sides in between breaths. It was meant as an experiment. An experiment that, to his own surprise, yielded better results than he thought. The surface was slightly charred, but the inside was well-cooked, even leaving some pink in the middle, just the way he likes it.

     Before he and Avi could celebrate their experimental cooking method, they were interrupted by his doorbell. The maroon-haired man sighed. “Wait. Let me check who it is,” he said, holding a hand up before allowing Avi to hide in his room. He peered through the peephole and found the same shade of jade staring back, startling him a bit. But then his guest moved back, the familiarity of the face washed him with relief. “It’s okay, Avi. You don’t have to hide.”

     Avi’s body relaxed, though he was still curious of the guest’s identity. He watched Emrys opened the door and a woman about the same height as he—maybe an inch or two shorter—entered and hugged him. The dragon’s head tilted slightly to the side; whoever she was, she was close to him.

     “Happy birthday, love,” she said, kissing his cheek. When she moved back, her hands lingered on Emrys’ face. Her eyes drifted to the large black creature hanging out in the kitchen, a hot iron skillet in his hand, and her eyes widened. “Emrys, is that…”

     “Oh, yeah. Yeah!” Emrys invited the woman in and quickly locked the door shut. “He’s the guy I told you about. Morgaine, this is Avi. Avi, Morgaine. She’s my sister.” He guided her to the dining table, in the middle of which was a steel cooling rack. Avi put the iron skillet of charred pork ribs on it, but a confused chirrup came from his throat. “My oldest sister,” Emrys answered, sensing the confusion in Avi’s tone. “Vivi is the second, Anna is the third, and me…I’m the baby of the family.”

     At the explanation, Avi hummed. He wiped his hand with a napkin nearby before offering a handshake to Morgaine, who looked at him with puzzled wonderment. She was slow to return his offer, but eventually their hands grasped each other. Morgaine’s opinion changes were visible from her expression.

     “Wow, I—” she stammered, “He’s polite,” she remarked, turning to her brother, who smiled sheepishly. She looked at the dragon’s humongous hand, how it easily dwarfed hers. Sharp triangular claws tucked tightly into the back of his fingers by design. They resembled trimmed human nails. The dragon retreated and took his place on the dining table, his tail slipped through the opening on the back of the chair. Morgaine turned again to her brother. “Your first employee ever and you treat him like a roommate.”

     “Well, what can I do? He’s probably from outer space. You should know better how people are in a place that’s foreign to them. You hire hapless fish-out-of-water all the time.” Emrys took a seat adjacent to Avi, serving himself a rib. He gestured the hot skillet of ribs to his sister. “Care to join, sis?”

     Morgaine eyed the table full of feast, her face twisting to a restrained disgust. “Do you have anything that’s not…meaty?”

     “Oh, oops. Fuck, I forgot about the potato gratin. Is that okay?” He jumped from his seat and rushed back to the kitchen to grab the forgotten food. Luckily, it was already done baking by the time he and Avi were collaborating on the ribs.

     “That’ll do. I’m just taking a little munch. Already ate before I came here.” She served herself a glass of whisky that was already on the table while waiting for Emrys to fetch the lighter meal. The flavor of it was stronger than she preferred, but she still found it quite delectable.

     The two siblings talked most of the time, though Morgaine was the more chatty one. Avi was mostly forgotten during their conversation, but he was listening the entire time, tail slowly swishing across the wooden floor. From clues left behind from the conversation, Avi was able to deduce that Morgaine was at least seven years or more older than Emrys. They would tease each other about the attractiveness of some man they were talking about, so Morgaine seemed to be single and not interested in serious relationships. Emrys, on the other hand, had subtle looks of longing that he would shove away forcefully with sass. Watching them converse caused Avi to purr in a very low tone, low enough that the two humans failed to notice it, despite the slight rumble on his throat.

     The laughter were somewhat interrupted as the doorbell rang again. Not just once, but twice, thrice, four times, too excessively. That effectively killed off any sounds of enjoyment. It didn’t help that the excessive bell ringer was none other than Eamon. His face was somewhat pinkish, a half-empty bottle of vodka in his right hand and a thick tablet with a crack on one of its corners in his left.

     “Surprise! Happy birthday!” he cheered, his words were a bit slurred.

     Emrys moved aside, gingerly letting his father in. “Normally, I don’t like surprise parties, but I’m genuinely curious about this one. How did you know?”

     “Of course I know. I’m your dad!” He shoved the half-empty bottle of vodka to his son’s chest. “Here’s your present, lad.”

     Emrys grimaced and placed the bottle on a shelf near the door before following his father. “Yeah, except this is the first time you’ve ever come to celebrate.” Emrys crossed his arms, watching the tipsy old pirate helped himself with a rib. A rib that was supposed to be Avi’s last. Already he noticed Avi was restraining a protest from coming out of his maw. The only reason he knew the dragon was upset was because his spikes perked up.

     “Oh, hi, Morgaine—hey, there’s a first time for everything.” He chomped at the ribs, oil coursed over his lips and his unruly beard, dripping down to the table, much to Morgaine’s disgust. “Jesus, this is some good shit. You make the best shit, boy!”

     “Can you at least sit down and eat on a plate?” Morgaine half-groaned.

     “Nah, I’ll just eat from the pan. Ooh, still warm.” He carefully wrapped his fingers around the handle, testing its safety. Once he determined that it was just about cool enough to touch without searing his skin, he dragged it across the table. He smeared the rib in his hand all over the leftover grease on the pan, absorbing the lost flavor back into the meat. He then glanced to the dragon adjacent to him. He swore he was looking at him. “Don’t be so mad. Here, I got you a present too.”

      Eamon handed a thick tablet to the reluctant dragon. His greasy fingers left very oily fingerprints on the back and on the screen. Avi quickly cleaned the grease off with a tissue before studying its partially cracked glory. It was a really old data tablet. It was as big as a hardback book, both in size and thickness. Avi made a puzzled grunt as he spun and turned the tablet in his hands.

     “What, never seen a data tablet before?” Eamon flouted.

     “Dad, that thing’s from the stone age. I have one that’s newer and smaller.”

     “Fuck, then why didn’t you buy one for him?”

     While the father and son bickered, Avi managed to turn on the tablet, having to wait for an agonizingly slow boot time. When it turned on, the screen was all black, until neon green pixelated text appeared on the corner of the screen, showing its time. It was eight hours late and the date was still stuck in 1970. Stone age was right.

     “What for?” Emrys asked, his voice gradually rising the longer he talked with his father.

     “So you can talk to him properly. You can stop playing charades in front of your clients and embarrassing yourself when you keep getting it wrong.”

     “Well, I happen to enjoy doing ‘charades’. I’m kinda good at it,” Emrys retorted. He pursed his lips, choosing not to mention that he had started learning how to sign on his own. Telling him more will only invite the old man to prolong the conversation, while all he wanted was for him to leave.

     “You shouldn’t spoil your employee just because he’s special. Look at this! I know you like to cook, but it just seems like you’re his butler, making his food for him.” Eamon took the bottle of vodka—the bottle he gifted his son for his birthday—and downed half of what was remaining.

     Emrys’ jaws clenched. “I buy his food using his money. This is something we agree on.”

     “Ah, see. You even do his groceries for him.”

     “Then what the hell do you expect me to do? Tell him to wear a trenchcoat and a hat and send him to the market?”

     “Well, I dunno! Something! He should be the one working for you, not the other way ’round! Tell him to go hunt or something. Plenty of deers around this part. You just like being someone’s bitch housekeeper!” Eamon finished the bottle, oblivious to the throbbing veins on his children’s foreheads and a faint sound of glass cracking. “Really should’ve took you with me when you were a wee lad. This what happens when you leave raising boys to a bunch of women.”

     The table suddenly split in half, divided unevenly, but in the epicenter of the destruction was Avi’s gigantic hand curling in a tight fist. Eamon scuttled backwards, narrowly missing Avi’s claws trying to snatch his face, but the dragon was quick to pounce on him. He roared in front of the drunk pirate’s face, splatters of saliva covering his cheeks. Eamon screeched in terror. This must be it for him.

     “Back off, Avi,” Emrys’ voice sliced into the tension. “Just leave him.”

     Avi stopped roaring, but he was unsatisfied. He grabbed the older man by the face, claws already tucked back, and dragged him out of Emrys’ front door. Morgaine sighed, placing her hand on her brother’s shoulder.

     “I’ll call you tomorrow morning. Someone’s gotta drive the old man home.” She leaned in and placed a gentle kiss on her brother’s cheek, before leaving the vicinity with her father.

     The apartment was suddenly silent. Avi locked the front door and faced the carnage he had caused in his brief burst of rage. He began picking up the damaged table as well as the broken glasses and plates. Emrys joined him shortly after, bringing the trash bin and helping him picking up the shards. Avi whimpered and was about to sign, but Emrys spoke ahead of him. “Thanks…for kicking him out…” he muttered, energy had left his soul.

     Avi braved himself to look at his boss’ face. His jade eyes were glassy, the bottom edges of his eyelids were starting to redden. The dragon’s chest tightened at the view. One of his hands left the shards, he brushed the tips of his fingers to the side of the human’s face, which startled him.

     “Jesus, I’m okay. I’m not gonna cry,” he denied, his voice cracking at the end. He tried to distract himself by doing more cleaning and noticed, strewn under Avi’s chair, was the old tablet his father gave to Avi. The crack on one of its corner had been covered by more cracks that shattered the entire tablet. Avi’s fist must have hit it first before extending to the table. He picked the broken tablet and studied its damage. “I guess I can’t communicate with you anymore.”

     Avi signed a ’sorry’ after dumping all the glass shards into the bin. Emrys shook his head and let out a low energy chuckle. “I’m just being sarcastic. I’m still determined on learning sign language from you. But if you still want a tablet, I can give you mine. I can just get a new one.”

     Avi nodded at the offer; while he appreciated Emrys’ effort to learn his language, he still needed a tablet in case he needs to say a lot. Still, he could not stop the guilty feeling for having broken the dining table. After cleaning up his mess, he disappeared to his room for a few minutes and then returned with a handful of money. He handed the stack to Emrys, who eyed it with puzzlement. Avi clarified by pointing at the carcass of the table.

     “Oh, is this—Avi, you don’t have to.” Emrys pushed back Avi’s money-holding hand, but the dragon pushed again with more insistence. Too tired from the near emotional breakdown earlier, Emrys relented. “Well, at least I know you’re a responsible guy,” he remarked, a small smile crept to his face. 

     Avi started wagging the tip of his tail, pleased to see a smile back on Emrys’ face. It was the least he could do after the damage he had done.

     Emrys left briefly to his room and returned with a tablet in hand. He gave it over to Avi, who studied it. This one was definitely newer compared to the one Eamon gave. It sported more colors in its screen, with a system more intuitive than the mobile Apple DOS the old brick had. “I haven’t factory reset this thing yet. I just want you to test it out. Go on, write something.”

     Avi took a few moments to do what Emrys told him, his fingers tapping on the digital keyboard carefully, not wanting to extend his superhuman strength over to the newer tablet. He didn’t want to destroy another of Emrys’ property. Once he finished, he flipped the tablet over to him.

     It works just great, written on a notepad application.

     “Awesome! Still, if you prefer signing, that’s okay too. You just…have to bear with me, I still need a lot of practice.”

     Avi quickly typed another sentence, the rush of joy of being able to communicate more effectively washed over his head. I can help you practice.

     Emrys blushed but his smile bloomed a bit more. Whatever remnant of earlier’s emotional turmoil had been chipped away, thanks to the dragon. “I appreciate that, Avi.” He placed a hand on Avi’s upper hand, since the dragon’s shoulder was a bit too high to reach without standing on his tiptoes. “Also…thanks for defending me earlier…”

     This time, Avi set aside the tablet. He returned to signing, setting his arms on both of his sides and motioned his fingers.

     You’re welcome.

#exophilia #terato #dragon #monster #my writing #my ocs #the dragon of no words #avinashi shirmi #emrys

[refsgaard81mcfadden-blog]

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[storyunrelated]

Interrogator

I'm a fairly placid person in an 'apathetic/hollow inside' sort of a way.

But if I ever happened to encounter someone who could somehow intrude into my head and read my thoughts I would politely ask them not to. If they did anyway, I would likely rip their throat out with my teeth.

The very thought of another conscious being poking around inside my head fills me with intense, disgusted rage. It's a personal foible I'll admit, but it's one I have.

And it would be worse if they were clumsy about it, too.

[If you're innocent why would you mind us having a poke around?]

Vandella still couldn’t quite believe that there’d been a time when criminal cases had hinged on something as crude as physical evidence. The mere thought made her face twist in confusion and horror. What a terrible time to have been alive.

Nowadays of course they were far more advanced. Civilized, you might say. Developments in sympathetic neural-lacing had led to - among other things - an easy and efficient way of linking human minds and letting them talk directly Technology being utilised to finally allow people to communicate brain to brain! Swapping thoughts freely and easily!. A wondrous development and no mistake.

Initially though, the egalitarian nature of the technology made it largely useless for anything professional. You couldn’t reach in and rummage around in someone else’s head without them letting you do it, for example. This changed with rapid development though, and quickly a specialised version of the device was made that allowed one of the linked human minds to probe without fear of being probed back and to overpower whatever defences the probed mind might happen to put up.

The implications of this for justice were obvious and immediate.

As might well have been expected there was your usual round of bleating protest at the time. Privacy this, violation of human rights this blah blah blah. Such anti-justice talk died down eventually once it became clear that it wasn’t making a blind bit of difference and that they were in the minority.

While the notion of having someone poke around inside your own head might sit poorly with most people, the same idea of having someone poke around inside the heads of people who looked guilty and finding out that, yes, they were actually guilty was something those same most people felt much more positively about. Their support often bordered on the rabid.

That sometimes the guilty-looking people turned out to be completely innocent was expected, but often ignored. No-one liked thinking about that sort of thing.

From this and for this Interrogators were born, those individuals blessed with a natural affinity for delving into reluctant minds and pulling out that which others would rather keep hidden. Like whether someone had killed someone else or if they knew more than they were letting on. The people whose job it was to plunge into the brain of someone else and determine - without the possibility of doubt! - their guilt or their innocence.

Vandella was an Interrogator. Obviously. Quite a notable one, too. This was why she was waved through the security door with only the most cursory waft of her identification. They knew her, it was cool. She entered the restricted area of her local Justice Bastion (a questionable name but one the PR people said was top-notch) with casual ease and yawned as she did so, heading immediately for the kitchen to make coffee. Following this, she got changed into her uniform. Following this, she settled in to see what the day held.

It held interrogations, unsurprisingly. Even when confronted with technology allowing the guilty to be easily sorted from the innocent there were still people insistent on committing crimes. Something inherent in the human condition, apparently, but Vandella wasn’t going to question poor decisions that kept her in a job. The day bulged with those in need of probing.

The first subject on her list was accused of fly-tipping. Denied it up and down, of course.

That people still lied about their guilt in this day-and-age when ripping the truth out was a known fact of life baffled Vandella. Presumably they imagined that they might be able to hold their secrets close enough to defeat the efforts of the Interrogators, apparently failing to realise that the harder they held on the harder the Interrogators would be forced to go, which would only ever have negative consequences for the person being interrogated.

But that was people. Hope sprung eternal. Maybe they’d be the first person to resist. Maybe.

Probably not though.

Draining the dregs of her coffee and silently despairing at whatever bottom-shelf supplier they’d purchased it from Vandella got up to start the work of the day, heading away from her desk and down beneath the Justice Bastion (such a strong, powerful name!) to where the holding cells and the interrogation rooms were.

There, she was nodded at in greeting by various guards and technicians and other Interrogators already going about their business. By the time she arrived at her interrogation room the subject was already there and already set up. Vandella made a mental note to buy her support team some chocolates - they’d really outdone themselves of late.

The subject was a wispy slip of a man who looked even smaller than he likely was sitting in the large, one-size-fits-all interrogation chair. On seeing Vandella enter he started quivering harder than he had been to start with. Vandella just shook her head. His eyes bulged, swivelling fearfully to keep Vandella in sight as she pottered around the cell setting everything up to her liking.

As a rule, subjects were gagged. Prior to this the constant protestations of innocence, pleas for mercy and sometimes relentless stream of inventive insults had been quite distracting. The gag solved these issues, but could do little about the stares, which were often also quite distracting. Vandella just didn’t make eye-contact. This was as a result of experience.

Settling herself in the seat opposite the subject she fished around for the nerual-plug rather like someone in the backseat of a cat trying to find a seatbelt. She found it, blew off whatever dust had collected (it was cleaned daily, this was just a habit of hers) and then plugged it into the socket set at the base of her skull.

Vandella’s own neural-lattice was implanted, like all Interrogator’s were. The subject just had a special hat on to affect a connection. Rudimentary, but more than enough for a good connection and most importantly financially prudent. Coming up with names like ‘Justice Bastion’ didn’t come cheap so they had to cut whatever corners elsewhere that they could.

No sense in wasting any time.

Closing her eyes Vandella let her cast-iron hold on her own consciousness slip enough to allow herself to slide into the head of the subject. There was a nauseating tipping sensation, of the sort a drunk might feel when off-balance and falling over forwards, and then Vandella was crashing through a door.

Imagine you were pushing open a door with all your weight, expecting from experience that it was a heavy door that required effort. Only today it wasn’t, and all your effort and weight meant that you can floundering through the door far too fast and far too clumsily. It was like that. She closed her eyes, tipped, and was then falling through a door that shouldn’t have opened so easily.

And then she was in a filing room, in the dark, smelling the hot dust. She was in.

All visitors and intruders into another person’s mindscape perceived it as something comprehensible, but usually chaotic. Like a busy city during rush hour, or a vast supermarket full of angry shoppers. Something overwhelming and unhelpful but something they could at least understand. No-one would have been able to do anything with the raw view of the mindscape, even if it was possible to see it. Which it was not. The intruder’s brain would not allow it. It filled in, like with what the eye saw or more accurately what the eye did not see.

Interrogators - trained as they were - had more narrow scope and were only ever after memories. As a result they tended to see something they could work with. Vandella’s brother Vandal, for example, saw himself in a crockery shop, with all the memories and thoughts he needed painted onto commemorative plates. Their teacher at the academy Lochaim had apparently seen a beautifully tended garden and lovingly hand-reared, brilliantly coloured flowers on whose petals and stems was the information he needed.

Vandella, being a natural and a gifted prodigy, saw a filing room. A nice, easy filing room. Neatly organised cabinets sitting in neatly organised rows, waiting to be rifled through. All but one of the lights was broken so it was darker than it should have been, and all the drawers were rusty and broke when pulled out and some of the locks needed jimmying before they’d yield their contents. But other than that nice and easy.

The one consistent theme running through all of these ways of visualising the memories of their subjects was that everything was perfectly happy and settled until the Interrogator showed up, at which point disorganisation was inevitable. They tried to be delicate, they really did, but it just wasn’t something they could really do much about. Things were set up so that making a mess was the only possible option. Making a mess or leaving it alone, which just wasn’t in the service of justice.

Vandal would knock over cabinets of plates with wayward elbows or disrupt carefully balanced displays by nudging the wrong thing. Lochaim would have to trample those beautiful flowers to get to the ones he wanted. Vandella would have to pull files and bring them to the one functioning light to see if they were the ones she wanted and if they weren’t then there was no easy way of making sure they got back in the right place.

It was the same for everyone. It was just how it worked.

But they were professionals. They’d been trained and drilled to cause as little disruption as humanly possible. If anyone was going to be stepping into your head in search of justice you’d want it to be one of these guys, not just any amateur. An amateur might make an even bigger mess, and then where would you be?

Not as if the damage was long-lasting anyway. The brain put everything back the way it was meant to be in a week or so. Most of the time. Sometimes helped with a little therapy. Innocent subjects were even given a discount for the therapy so everything was completely fine.

Steadying herself, Vandella took a moment to adjust. No matter how many times she did it the jolt always put her off-balance, and every room was always a tiny bit different - enough to disorientate for the first couple of seconds. Squinting in the gloom and sweeping a practise eye around her surroundings she moved further in, moving whichever way her gut told her felt most right.

“Let’s see…” she said, one hand coming up in front of her, moving through the air that was not there, groping after something she could only barely sense. Like trying to find an air current.

As concrete and real as the filing room might have looked, it wasn’t. Obviously. Merely a projection of the information being received, adjusted to a form that Vandella could comprehend. The pull she was feeling, the one that was gently tugging her in one direction over any other direction, was one without any real-world analogue. The idea of following a breeze was just the closest approximation her brain could come up with. And so it was.

Her hand settled on one filing cabinet out of all the other ones present. She smiled. That was quick. Normally it could take minutes. Sometimes even longer. Today was clearly a good day. But narrowing it down to just the one cabinet was only the first step, there was still rifling to be done. Putting aside the possibility she was just plain wrong to start with, which could happen but which she decided probably wouldn't. Not this time.

Squatting, she took hold of the handle on the bottom-most drawer and gave the thing a wrench. There was a painful screech of protesting metal which put her teeth on edge and the drawer came halfway out. Another pull saw it coming the rest of the way. In the gloom - the light was behind the filing cabinet she was looking in, and so blocked - she could vaguely see files but no details. This was expected. Letting her hand wander as it may she picked one at random and pulled it out, standing up and moving closer to the light to have a better look.

The page had writing, but the words were meaningless. Looking at them gave no hope of reading them, but did still fill Vandella’s head with their contents. It was odd, rather like she was looking at something she’d seen already and was just remembering it. She saw a morning some days prior and pawed through the pilfered memory for any trace of a date, flicking through stolen images taken into her own head and quickly finding a moment when the subject had glanced at their phone. This memory was from a day or two prior to when the crime had actually occurred.

This was a start. Now to find something after the date of the crime.

Bracketing was a simple technique, though like all simple things to pull it off properly required practise and a certain level of innate talent. The idea was to find a memory before and a memory after the event you were interested in. That way you could limit whatever damage you had to cause in order to pinpoint the exact information. Basic stuff.

Returning to the drawer Vandella did her best to return the file to where she thought it had come from, closed the drawer and then moved one up. Again there was a brief spurt of effort and horrible noise as the cabinet had to be forced open and then Vandella was pulling out another file. A brief examination of another ransacked memory showed that this one was from perhaps three days before the crime.

She’d gone in the wrong direction. Everything in this filing room was backwards compared to the last couple she’d done. That happened sometimes, though agreeably not to her for a little while now. She’d got complacent.

“Oops,” she said, shoving the file back more-or-less in the place she’d got it from

Moving to the next cabinet and starting from the top she quickly found something of more use to her - a memory from the day just after. This was more like it. She couldn’t help but grin. Today was going swimmingly.

Her hand clenched involuntarily, a spasm that saw the paper she was holding crumpled to a ball. Regrettable and unfortunate, but one of those things. A foible of the neural interface. Nobody ever said it was perfect. Uncrumpling it she smoothed it out as best she could and put it back, hopefully somewhere near where it was meant to be.

She started to work her way backwards, dipping in here and there, getting closer and closer to what had been estimated to be the rough time of day the crime had been committed. With every memory she drank in she saw more and more that this subject had been nowhere near the scene of the crime.

It was looking increasingly likely that this subject was innocent. A pain, that.

Guilty persons were fairly easy. All you had to do was find that one memory of theirs that showed them actually committing the crime and you were done. Sometimes this was fiddly when that memory proved hard to track down, but once you got it you were basically done.

Innocent people, by contrast, you had to make sure about. You had to narrow down your search to find the general timeframe of the crime and then just keep narrowing it down and down and down until you’d completely proven that they had nothing to do with it. Memory by memory.

This took time and this made a mess. But the alternative was letting guilty people go and letting innocent people suffer for it. Well, suffer in an intangible, ‘injustice is intolerable’ sort of a way. The suffering that came from having someone paw through their thoughts was just an unavoidable part of the process and therefore didn’t count.

Laboriously did Vandella go through every single memory that the subject had on the day of the crime, absorbing them in their entirety and knowing - in the truest, rawest sense of ‘knowing’ that it was possible for a person to get - that the subject was totally free of guilt. Cramming the last memory back into whichever drawer was closest (she was grumpy) Vandella grimaced.

“Waste of time…” she said, sinking into a sulk and slouching slowly to the door, through which she exited the filing room and the subject’s head altogether.

There was a jolt and a blinding flash and Vandella was back in the interrogation cell. One hand dabbing away some of the blood dribbling from her nose the other went up to disconnect the neural link.

Across from her the subject - quivering, gibbering quietly and with arms spasmodically straining against the bonds keeping them in their seat - had soiled themselves. They did that sometimes, unfortunately.

Her support team were already in motion before Vandella had stood up. A hustling bustle of professional came bustling professionally in, unbuckling the subject and dragging them limply from the room as another member ran Vandella through a standard and light barrage of post-interrogation tests. She passed, obviously.

Not the most inspiring way to start the day, all told. She would have preferred someone comfortable guilty. Now she just felt like she’d pissed her valuable time up a wall. It’d ruin her mood all the way through lunch, she just knew it.

“Can I get someone in here to clean this up?” Vandella asked, gesturing vaguely at the puddle the subject had left on the seat and the floor below it. The team member who’d administered the test nodded silently and left at speed to go fetch someone to do that. Vandella sighed.

The smell would hang around for days, she just knew it.

END

#Interrogator #Amwriting #Writblr #Writeblr #Writing #Short #Short story

[surveystories]

Good Wedding Planners in Kolkata

Importance of hiring a Wedding Planner:

A wedding planner should be a liaison between the vendors and the bride/groom, who can take care of your each and every minute detail and plan your event according to your preference, also can give you better ideas and suggest you the details within your budget line. It seems a simple question to everyone’s mind that what does a wedding planner do?

So let’s get right down to it! There are the following answers and the summary of the primary duties and skills that wedding planners are responsible for. From engagement to honeymoon, a planner can set all the things in order. And it all starts with a simple conversation.

Initial Consultation

This initial stage of consultation always starts from client’s perspective. The planner and the clients serves to set the groundwork as what the client is expecting from the planner and what the client is planning to do. The client may be the bride, the groom or the parents of bride and groom or any other combination of relation. Now it is entirely up to the wedding planner to figure out who are your true clients and whose opinion is most important above all others. In most cases the most important opinion comes from a bride. On the day of wedding, coordination is most important for a wedding planner who takes care of all the logistics and necessities for the wedding itself.

A full planning of wedding involves everything included a day of coordination and lots more such as fixing budgets, venues, managing vendors, and all that nitty-gritty details that suits to plan a wedding.

Day of Coordination

Most girls have dreamed of their wedding day since they were little and most of them wanted to plan it by themselves according to their needs and many of them refuse to let anyone else plan their wedding. Some bride has been recognized that their wedding should be about enjoyment and bliss, not getting involve to any details and let others involve to make happen it properly.

So if they have already been taken care of all the pre-wedding preparations and all, they might need a help or an expert advice on the day of their wedding, what they will be looking for their D-day. And of course being the business-savvy wedding planner, you can offer this coordination service to your lucky brides!

Wedding Day

On the wedding Day, the planner should arrive in time as early enough with the checklist that the arrangements to be done and supervise with all the vendors like venues, decoration, DJ team, sounds and lights operators and answer all the questions that may arise. All they need to do is to fix one in-charge who can take care of the entire event and with whom the client and their families can coordinate. Planners should also ensure and should give a brief about the event to the in-charge along with the details of vendors, which are all informed in advance of each event.

After the ceremony is completed the wedding planner should ensure that the guest quickly usher themselves and get ready for the reception place where bride and groom can start their photo-shoot after getting married and wedding parties are all appropriate place for photos to begin. Most importantly a wedding planner should possess the ability to make itself perfect by moving slow or fast according to the timeline of event.

Wrapping up

Now the job is not done yet! Even everyone clears out, planners should make sure all of the client’s property, and wedding gifts are properly packed and secured in a vehicle or in a storage room. If there are lot of more unpack gifts then it’s better to hire client’s volunteers to be taken care of that stuffs.

 As said before that a Wedding Planner is a liaison between the clients and vendors, so this will enable the bride or groom to enjoy their event to the fullest, instead of having to chase after vendors. After all this is the main reason to hire a wedding planner. It’s all about the vision of a wedding planner to ensure the client’s vision and implement the plan accordingly. Sometimes it’s not enough for a wedding planner to stand all day along with all these responsibilities, so what they can do is to divide all the duties among the team members and the duties turned up to them who will be present for the entire day.

  What points to keep in mind while hiring a Wedding Planner:

Your Wedding day is an extremely personal event for you. After all it’s all about celebrating you and your partner’s love. So things have to be properly arranged and maintained and it makes sense that you are in need of hiring an event or wedding planner or a professional one of your like. To make the process easier, here are some key points written below which you should ask a wedding planner before hiring. It’s important to thoroughly vet them to ensure that they are the right fit for you and your partner.

1.       Be sure whether they are available for your date or not.When it comes to questions to ask a wedding planner, this should be your first. You don't want to waste your time if they're not free on the chosen date. If your wedding date is still flexible and you'd be willing to wait to work with someone you really love, ask for a few options so you can take them into consideration when you're finalizing your timeline.

 2.        Next up on the list of important topics to cover: Money. This question is great because it also opens up the discussion about potential services they provide you in your budget. For example, if you really love the planner but can't afford their full-time services, ask if they'd be willing to do part-time planning or month-of coordinating for a smaller fee instead.

 3.        It's not always clear from their website what their services are, so it's good to ask for a thorough explanation of the types of ways they can help you with your wedding planning. This information will make it easier to decide what type of planner would be best for you. For example, if you're super-organized and have time to follow up with pros yourself, then you may only need someone for a coordination role. But if you're planning a destination wedding, it may be best to work with a full-time planner who can manage the logistics for you. 

4.       You'll get help with budgeting and scheduling. Most couples have a strict wedding budget and timeline they need to adhere to. Your wedding planner will be able to help you get the most for your money and will crunch numbers and score discounts, getting you the best deals. Plus, they'll keep you on schedule, ensuring you cross every to-do off your list in a timely manner.

5.They have tons of insider knowledge.A wedding planner regularly communicates with florists, caterers, DJs, stationery designers, hair stylists, and photographers. She can recommend the best vendors for your particular celebration, meaning you don't need to spend hours sifting through Google search results. What's more, the wedding planner can potentially negotiate deals you wouldn't get otherwise since they have an ongoing relationship with most local vendors.

Now let’s talk about few good wedding planners in Kolkata:

 Asparagus Event and Wedding Planner:

Asparagus Event and Wedding Planner, a wedding planning service designed especially to help wedding planning couples to through affordable services. Founded in 2010, Asparagus Event and Wedding Planner continues to create magical occasions for wedding couples. In fact they are considered one of the most profound and renowned Event Management Groups in Kolkata. Basically they are expertise to host modern contemporary traditional weddings and poised to create your ideal wedding celebrations. This professional Kolkata Wedding Planner has experience in creating bespoke modern luxury weddings throughout Kolkata and suburbs. Let go of your wedding planning stress and trust this team to execute your dream wedding with flawless attention with every detail. While ensuring your wedding budget remains on track, Asparagus Event and Wedding Planner is a certified wedding planning company based in Kolkata. For a seamless service that caters to all the finer details of your big day. You can best assured that your ceremony will be in safe hands. Their planning starts from finding a proper venue according to the event combined with decoration, catering service and other miscellaneous service preferred by their clients. Mainly they got engaged in Bengali weddings but they also do work for other weddings too.

Wedlock Events:

Planning a wedding is everyone’s dream journey especially for a bride. From childhood to teenage, every single lady fascinates her wedding day in her mind and a dedicated wedding planner gives a shape to every story. Here I am going to share a story about the team who is not only successful but also left a mark creating their milestone in wedding planning industry. Wedlock events deliver refined, effortless and impeccably planned weddings throughout the Kolkata for couples from around the world. As your wedding planner, they give you the shape to laugh and love, to feel inspired, to reveal in the possibilities and to fully experience each of your exquisite moment. They are really generous with their time, schedule, and regular meetings and connect you like-minded suppliers. They work closely together in the lead up to your wedding. On your day you will surely find them alongside each other, as a cohesive team, one step ahead of every detail. They have an extremely experienced and talented team, who are dedicated in creating and providing a wedding like no other. Their service is quite frankly, the best way to guarantee both a stress-free planning experience and a wedding that surpasses all expectation. You will be updated at every stage of their planning, with mails and support. Just some of the details you won’t have to worry about: apportioning your budget, managing schedules, creating and delivering a design concept, sourcing the perfect suppliers, everything flows effortlessly on the day itself. So if anyone is looking for a good wedding planner, you can surely get in touch with the team.

Wedding Sutra:

Planning your wedding should be fun and a time that you thoroughly enjoy as a couple. Yet, with such an abundance of inspiration, a multitude decisions to make and often a shortage of time to fit it all in, navigating your way through the planning process can often feel overwhelming. Wedding Sutra is just like India’s most famous leading media brand of Wedding Planning Service. It provides plenty information about weddings to reach a target audience of highly sophisticated and standard couples. They understand the complexity of planning such a momentous occasion and the importance of creating an event that is not only flawlessly executed, but fully represents you as a couple. With meticulous organization skills the brand has developed a large number of national brands lifestyle, luxury and beauty firms to target out their audience for marketing programs. Whether you are imagining a spectacular, large-scale event or a more intimate celebration, they would love to hear a word from you.

Bengal Event Planning Service:

Bengali Event Planning Services, a wedding planning company producing weddings with style and substance across the Kolkata and beyond. They are specializing in design celebrations usually held in different venues, mostly in outdoors. Perhaps if you are planning a wedding at home and have no idea from where to begin, perhaps you have guests travelling from all over the world for a celebration, for which you definitely require professional support. They have the expertise team, contacts and creative flair to transform your venue and managed an impeccably executed event theme. With their full planning service, they will be with you from the early days of scheming and dreaming right through to the wedding day itself. They also cover individual services too. You can arrange everything on by your own but sometimes you also need an expert advice and so they are, always beside your needs, taken care by them.

Marvelous Events:

When you have a clear objective and a vision towards work, you need to give it a medium. Their team really works solely for the goal of making an event breathe life with love and creativity. They bring equal style and detail to every event – consulting, designing and co-coordinating, everything from the invitation to good-bye. Partial work for only styling projects for any kind of home or formal events are also catered by them. Marvelous Events work closely with you and your families to develop an event that is uniquely yours, reflecting your personality and individual taste. Whether you wish for a small intimate affair, a large scale anniversary celebration or an exotic island wedding, they will make your event more special and worth remembering your-day-your-way! They take pride in their ability to create the perfect experience, blending Indian traditions with all your distinctive personal styles. Their main goal is to ensure that the key essence to an Indian wedding isn’t lost. They merge the colors, richness of our culture and music to create something uniquely personal for each client to give them a big fat Indian wedding. They know their clients inside out and design specifics such as decoration ambiance, invitation and the taste of their clients.

SWASTIK EVENTS:

Swastik Events is always the most trustworthy and creative planners. Their every motto is to give a flawless and creative touch to every wedding.  Swastik Events generate a unique atmosphere and beautiful details illustrating the beauty of your day. They have large group of clients in the different part of cities and they are very dedicated for offering their best service. Their unit comprises of experiences and such talented team members who puts forth to make everything possible in delivering of quality along with innovative work videos, photos as well as appealing venues design to the clients. Basically they are best in the segments of outdoor decoration tents at wedding events. These types of weddings are extremely grand and unique from other wedding venues. As described earlier, they have wide range of services starting with decoration to catering and miscellaneous service which includes every aspect of wedding planning and of course the day of co-ordination.  They lead more efficiency, creativity refinement & tailoring. They have a reliable network of venues and vendors are the greatest asset. They have another best tool to create a flawless wedding of your dream which might captivate your guests.

#GoodWeddingPlanner #ImportanceOfHiring #WeddingPlanners #EventManagement

[raquel08]

Optimize Your Google My Business Listing

A significant initial phase in any nearby SEO procedure is to guarantee and confirm your neighbourhood business’ Google My Business (GMB) listing. Jumping on Google My Business can build your odds of appearing in Google’s Local Pack, Local Finder, Google Maps, and natural rankings as a rule. Qualifying neighbourhood businesses can guarantee this free listing on Google and incorporate essential data about their organization, similar to their location, telephone number, business hours and sorts of instalments acknowledged.

Numerous neighbourhood businesses simply guarantee their GMB listing and forget about it. What most businesses don’t understand is that there are an assortment of different highlights you can use to improve your Google My Business listing and a few reasons why you ought to as often as possible check your business listing to guarantee that it’s exactness remains flawless. Need to know more?

Complete All The Data Google Requests

There are assortments of inquiries you can reply to finish your Google My Business profile. At the point when done, your listing will have significant information that will make it simpler for potential clients to discover your organization. Furthermore, in the event that you don’t fill that data in, another person could. Numerous business proprietors don’t understand that anybody can recommend a change to your business listing — and that incorporates contenders.

At the point when a searcher taps on your GMB listing they can see a “Propose an alter” choice:

At the point when somebody taps on that alternative they can truly alter your Google My Business listing (and make some truly emotional changes, as well):

This is only one motivation behind why it’s significant that you login to your Google My Business dashboard consistently to guarantee that nobody has endeavoured to roll out any undesirable improvements to your listing. You’ll see a warning that changes are pending in the event that somebody has made recommended changes that need your endorsement.

Likewise, understand that Google supports individuals who know about your business to respond to questions, so Google can adapt more data about your organization. To do this they can just tap on the “Know this spot? Answer brisk inquiries” connect.

In the event that they know the response to the inquiries, they can reply. If not, they can decay.

Presently, some business proprietors have cried foul, saying that contenders or others with malevolent purpose can unleash ruin on their Google My Business listings with this component. Nonetheless, Google’s way of thinking is that this sort of “client created content” forms a network, all the more completely finishes a business’ profile, and enables Google to explore different avenues regarding diverse inquiry procedures.

After you get your Google My Business listing confirmed, keep on checking your listing routinely to err on the side of caution.

Google My Business Posts

Google Posts are “smaller than expected advertisements” that appear in Google search in your Google My Business listing

You can play around with your Posts by including a picture, a Call to Action (CTA), and in any event, including connects to another page or site. In case you’re utilizing Yext, you can make GMB Posts legitimately from your Yext dashboard.

Here Are Only A Couple of Post Thoughts:

If you’re having an occasion (like an online class) you can set up an occasion Post with a date and time and after that add connect to the enrolment page.

Do you have a deal continuing during a particular time? Make a “deal” occasion Post.

Does your most recent blog entry shake? Include a short portrayal of your blog entry and connection to the post on your blog.

New item you need to include? Demonstrate an image of this cool contraption and connection to where individuals can make the buy.

Want to spread occasion delight? Give potential clients an occasion message Post.

The potential outcomes with Posts are huge! Posts stay “live” for seven days or “go dull” after the date of the occasion.

Booking Catch Highlight

Google’s new Booking catch highlight can truly enable your business to stand apart from the group. On the off chance that you have any sort of business that depends on clients making arrangements and you’re utilizing incorporated planning programming, individuals would now be able to book a meeting with your business legitimately from your Google My Business listing. This can make it much simpler to get new clients!

On the off chance that you have a record with one of Google’s upheld planning suppliers, the booking catch is naturally added to your Google My Business listing.

Informing

Did you realize that you can enable potential clients to send you instant messages? This is an incredible method to interface legitimately with potential clients.

In the event that you don’t need instant messages sent to your own telephone number, you can download Google’s Allo application. At the point when you set up your Allo account, utilize a similar telephone number associated with your Google My Business account. Presently when somebody messages you, Allo will send you a warning rather than the message showing up in your own instant messages.

To begin with Messaging, login to your GMB dashboard and snap on “Informing”

This element is still in its earliest stages, however. At this moment, informing is just accessible to portable web clients and isn’t accessible to versatile application or work area clients. Individuals additionally won’t see the Messaging alternative in the Knowledge Panel or on Google Maps.

The ONLY way somebody can message your business is in the event that they play out a versatile web search on Chrome. (I expect that Google will grow the Messaging highlight once they work the crimps out.)

Questions and Answers

Questions and Answers is a moderately new component to Google nearby look. It’s exceptionally cool! Much the same as it sounds, Q&A enables individuals to pose inquiries about your business and you can address those inquiries.

Here are a couple of things to remember about Questions and Answers:

The Q&A highlight isn’t noticeable on the versatile GMB application.

You need to login to the GMB dashboard to check whether you have any new addresses that need replying.

You can’t screen the Questions on a cell phone except if you have an Android telephone.

You can utilize the Google Maps App on Android gadgets to deal with the Q&A highlight as the business. To do this, download the Google Maps application, sign in with the email address you use for your GMB listing, and you will get pop-up messages in the event that somebody asks your business an inquiry.

Google My Business Online Surveys

In contrast to Yelp, which energetically demoralizes business proprietors to approach their clients for surveys, Google urges business proprietors to morally approach their clients or customers for online audits. Online audits show up alongside your listing in Google Maps and your business’ Knowledge Panel in hunt. Surveys can enable your business to stand apart among an ocean of list items.

Moreover, online audits are known to effect query output rankings, shopper trust, and navigate rates.

As indicated by Bright Local’s 2017 Consumer Review Survey:

97% of customers read online audits for nearby businesses in 2017, with 12% searching for a neighbourhood business online consistently

85% of customers trust online audits as much as close to home proposals

Positive audits make 73% of shoppers trust a neighbourhood business more

49% of purchasers need in any event a four-star rating before they utilize a business

Responding to surveys is a higher priority than any time in recent memory, with 30% naming this as key when passing judgment on nearby businesses

68% of customers left a neighbourhood business audit when asked — with 74% having been requested their criticism

79% of customers have perused a phony survey in the most recent year

On the off chance that you pursue Google’s rules for Google My Business audits, you can approach your clients for surveys.

At the point when clients leave surveys for you — positive or negative — ensure you react to them. In addition to the fact that it shows that client that you value their criticism, it additionally demonstrates potential clients that you give it a second thought.

What occurs in the event that you get a negative survey? To start with, don’t oddity out. Everyone has an awful day and a great many people perceive that. Additionally, on the off chance that you have a troll that gave you a one-star audit and left a dreadful remark, the vast majority with good judgment see the truth about that survey. It’s commonly not worth worrying over.

Conclusion:

Google My Business is one of the best ways to maximize the use of your business. All you need is a little optimization strategy. Make your brand known to many by promoting your content to a more-filtered audience. Connect with the experts of SEO in Lakewood, CO to know more about how GMB is beneficial for your business. 

#Google My Business #SEO