Broken Hearts and Journeys

The longest Journey I ever made was four days and nights on a train. It was the route of the Midnight Express. However, it was quite an ordeal from London to Istanbul. Not as glamorous as the movies like Orient Express, and no murders.
We went through England across the sea, France, Switzerland ( which was beautiful), Italy, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Greece.
Not quite as glamorous as it may sound, the further east we went, the dirtier the train and toilets became. The more difficult it became buying food.
I stocked up on food and drinks but soon ran out. Everyone shared.
Two fat jolly ladies boarded the train in Yugoslavia with a huge picnic basket. They were really generous as they shared their delicious food with a carriage of six people.
Bulgaria was green with rivers and beautiful landscapes. The customs Officers were intimidating. We had to get off the train and stand in a line on the platform. They called my travelling companion and me out of the crowd, probably because we had long hair and wore denim. They opened her passport, snapped it shut abruptly, looking shocked, and gave me a miss. I asked her about her passport, it was diplomatic one as her father was the Ambassador there for Sweden. Then they picked on a Slavic lady and made an example of her.
We had to buy food in stations and wait for the train to roll away to be sort of cleaned before returning. In Greece, the train was packed with new people, and I didn't have a seat, so two Turkish men gave me their seats and stood all night. Finally, we arrived at the central Iconic station of Istanbul. My friends rushed to hug me, tired as they had waited a day and a half as the train was late. I have to say I never ever stood on a bus or train in Turkey and was always offered a seat.
We later traveled south by ship and stayed there three months, seeing Effes, Troy, Izmir,and stayed at beautiful beaches.

I only ever had one romance in Istanbul, of course, a good-looking heartbreaker.
A whole other story!

Another occasion I was there under military rule, we were only allowed to stay where allocated. There were soldiers on every corner. That quarter of Istanbul was unknown to me and I got lost. I asked two soldiers where I was, and for directions.
‘Stand there!’,was the directive, and they had a short conversation I couldnt hear. One walked off…I became a bit worried. He came back twenty minutes later with a huge bunch of red roses for me. We chatted a bit, they stopped a car and said to the driver take the lady to her address…Thats a military order! How sweet they were.

Some journeys are exciting, some full of mishaps…or long, etc. Smaller boats are more interesting than larger ships. Flying has become traumatic these days with busy airports and officials.
The flights that I took to Australia and Japan were really long, usually 24 hours or more.
What interesting journeys have you experienced?

Play music, post memes and photos, chat with friends, and relate memories and experiences.
Enjoy,

Lian  and Kieran

Who Wants To Live Forever?

Would you like to live forever?
Personally, no…aging is not always a pleasant process.
There are Euthanasia clinics in some countries now. Perhaps a better option might be freezing.
You could be frozen and resuscitated. That’s now an expensive option, costing $200,000. Perhaps a peaceful natural demise is much better, celebrated by friends and family.

What a wonderful and inspiring singer Freddie Mercury was for Queen.

Queen - Who Wants To Live Forever

Freddie Mercury - The Great Pretender

It was Princess Diana that originally put Queen on the map. What a sad life she had in spite of beauty, privilege and wealth.
So money isnt everything.

Some people were frozen and the body went into a type of hibernation.

Irene Cara - Fame

Many of us lived through the sixties, seventies, and eighties…the best times ever.

Foreign travel opened up with cheap flight tickets, good music hit the scene, and there were great pop groups. Fashion was exciting, there was an abundance of good movies, authors, books and art. There was Elvis and The Rolling Stones.

Some of us would like to time travel back to happier times rather than to fast forward and freeze.

What are your memories of those eras?
What fashions did you follow? What were your experiences?

Easy Rider for a life changing movie.

Great experiences many would like to go back rather than forward the way things appear to be moving forward. Times were optimistic.

Snow Patrol - Chasing cars

Interest in foreign travel and cuisine

IMO enjoy as much as your life as possible, achieve great things, even creating a good atmosphere is a great achievement in an individual’s life.
Live now, live each moment. Friends and family are important.
So our theme is ‘life and living to the full’.
The best times you have had…good memories.
Veer from politics and religion. Chat with friends, encourage, post good music, memes, gifs, and trailers.

Enjoy……Lian and Kieran

The Animals, Tattoos and Music.

The Animals…

Were an amazing pop group.
Their rendition of House Of The Rising Sun was undoubtedly one of the best.

The Animals - House Of The Rising Sun

Then they supposedly faded away.
I never knew the reason that they faded away, and just came across one reason, it makes an interesting story.
Many pop groups coined their name.

The Yakuza…Japanese mafia were one of the main reasons the group disbanded.

When I was in Japan, I was warned about the Yakuza. I went for two periods to a Buddhist temple on Mount Fujiyama. The Yakuza hustled foreign people to provoke fights.I didn’t meet any and was very protected by a group of Japanese including the monks and always had a crowd of people around me.

They infiltrated the Temple I visited on Mount Fujiyama and followed Buddhists around playing hymns on transistor radios to provoke. heard they destroyed foreign businesses by burning them down… 

Fortunately, I never met any. They identify themselves with tattoos, and wore orange robes. Extortion was their main business, and they are extremely dangerous. Maybe my spirit white tiger animal protected me? Also, Yakuza have tiger tattoos but not of white tigers…yellow ones.

What animal spirit would you choose? We have two Wolf spirit guardians here, one tiger and a part dragon. For what reason would you choose an animal spirit?

What animal would you choose to be if you were an animal?

Do you have any tattoos? What is your opinion of tattoos? I’m glad I didnt have one, the main reason being they don’t look good on aging skin.

Claude King - Tiger Woman

Animals love music too.

Jokgu The Chicken Plays Piano

Dog Play Piano and Sings

So, most of all, enjoy the discussion. Post memes gifs, music, trailers, and chat with friends.
Stay off politics and religion, please.

Lian And Kieran

Bring Back Humour….A Trip Down Memory Lane

What has happened to the cheerful people that I used to meet?
I seem to listen to a lot of complaining. Few seem really happy anymore.
The buses don’t run on time, they are overcrowded, the roads are up…bills are high,
Etc., etc.,

I used to watch TV programs like Allo Allo, Benny Hill, and Little Britain, occasionally. Life was fun.
Now, I see younger people tap tapping on their phones, walking along, on the bus, no interaction or socializing.

So let’s be light hearted and laugh…Some of your priceless gifs and memes are here to chuckle over.
Forget your troubles and join in, chat, post music old favorites, movies.
Most of all enjoy.

Lian and Kieran

Please stay off of politics and religion, except our beloved resident preacher.