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Travel Blog: United Kingdom: Part Three- Pack It Up

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Hi! Welcome back! As per usual, when it comes to my multipart blog series, this is your pre-blog reminder to go back & read my previous two installments before continuing down the page below. If you’re in need of the two previous installments to this series they will be linked just below this paragraph & we will see you back here once you’re all caught up. If on the other hand, you are an avid reader of mine, thank you as always for your patronage, feel free to skip on to the title card below! Cheers!

THE UNITED KINGDOM

PART THREE:


Day Seven

We last left off in Dumfries at the home of the Donowhos. In spite of the more than gracious hosts they always are & the loveliness that Scotland always provides, it was time to head back down to London. We loaded up the car fairly early in the desire to beat the evening London traffic. Our plan was to sweep in from the Northeast side of London, drop our bags in Covent Gardens, take the car back to Heathrow, & take the tube back into London, more on that later.

If you have read anything from my previous UK trips you’ll know that I require a stop on the road south out of Scotland. Thanks to the gents that played the original Parkfest set with me back in the day, Tebay Services, Farmshop, & Kitchen is now a must stop, of course this time it was no different. We stopped to fill-up both the car & our bellies with a buffet style Full English Breakfast before on down the road we went once again.

There’s not too much eventful that happened along the road to London other than a rather rambunctious, down to the wire change of plans. My father had been gracious enough to lend us some of the Hilton Honors points he’d accrued in his travels over the years. I’d had him book our stay the night before at what was meant to be the Doubletree in Russell Square, sat on Southampton Road. However, when I called to confirm the room they had no booking for us anywhere on their computers so I called my dad back to make sure the reservation had been set. Now, let me be very plain that this is not a dig on my father nor is it meant to come across as unappreciative, I just think it’s a rather humorous story that deserves its slot in the annals of my blog page. It’s also worth noting that my father has never been outside of North America, The United Kingdom is entirely foreign to him. He had indeed booked us a reservation, only when he had pulled up “Doubletree, Southampton” that’s exactly what he got, a Doubletree in Southampton.

If you don’t know where Southampton is it’s about a two hour drive Southwest of London, sat on the Southern coast of England. Needless to say that wasn’t going to work so we not set about frantically looking for not outlandishly priced hotels in London that weren’t booked out for the weekend & that number was rapidly dwindling. Forgoing the plan to drop bags at our hotel & instead switching to dropping off the car first we made our way to Heathrow. It was only after returning the car & dropping down into the tube that our reservation at the only available, none lavishly expensive hotel was finally booked. That’s not to say that the hotel wasn’t lavish, it was gorgeous & we ended up at The Waldorf Hilton, London. After settling in to our *toss toss* upgraded room, we slipped down to the basement gym for some quick cardio, dressed for the evening, & went down the road to drop in on our friends Victoria & Rhys.

I had spent most of the day looking scrubby in my travel clothes but what became my official OOTD was the following: a Gold J. Crew Sweater, Blue Tellis AG Jeans, & Grey Suede Calvin Klein Boots.

We rolled up to the now Jones’ flat & before we could even call to be let in, Rhys noticed us through the window. We were buzzed in, climbed the stairs, & were met at the door by the duo & an almost completely empty flat. You see Rhys & Vic had come to the decision that when they left London to fly back to the states for their wedding, they were leaving for good & starting their life together as a married couple in America & when they flew out, the same day as us, it would be their last time in London until they returned for visits at a later date. Needless to say the apartment was quite different from the last time we’d seen it in April.

We sat exchanging stories before asking to see if they wanted to join us at dinner at Seven Dials Market. They politely declined with exhaustion rapidly setting in & Ev & I departed their company for the evening to grab some much needed sustenance.

Seven Dials was moderately busy, but not over the top. We went back & forth trying to decide on dinner but ending up with the same general consensus. Dinner was to be Thai as the main course, Dumplings/Bao as a side, & frozen Israeli beverages to drink. I got Chicken Pad Kee Mao at Yaay Yaay, Evan Papaya Salad. Evan & I both got a Pork Bao & Pork Dumplings at Yum Bun, then the drinks were a Lemon/Mint Slushy & a Blue/Pomegranate Slushy from SHUK. Once dinner was completed we decided to make a night of it. We invited Victoria & Rhys once again but they were already well in bed.

Our first stop of the evening was The Alchemist. A flashy cocktail bar with locations all across The UK, we actually skipped out on the drinks there this trip, I had my eyes set on one thing, their cocktail book. Once attained we headed over to EVE for our nightcap(s).

If you read my last UK blog from April you would’ve seen me rave & rant about Frog By Adam Handling. You also would have read about their sister bar, locked in the basement, feeding off their scraps, EVE. That last sentence is not a jab, EVE literally feeds off the kitchen scraps from Frog which it uses to create new & interesting gastronomy for the bar & the cocktails they sling. We only dipped out toes into EVE last time, this time we claimed a table & sat in for a while.

As far as drinks went, we had a few. I got the Amber Fizz (Johnnie Walker Black, Maraschino, Banana, Berries, & London Essence Ginger Ale), followed by the Lazarus (Appleton 12 Year, Santiago Blanco 3 Year, La Yuzu, Verjus, & Guava), but the star of the night, tasting like a Salted Caramel Espresso Martini was the Little Rise (Santiago 8 Year, Galliano, Coffee, Caramel, & Bitters). Evan has some form of Colada that was a special of the evening & an Il Conte (Patron Reposado, Kumquat, Madeira, Smoked Cocoa Nibs, & Prosseco DOCG).

We sat in the basement bar for around an hour & a half before we decided it was time to call it a night & off we went back to our hotel just down the street.

End Of Day Seven

Day Eight

Thursday we managed to sleep in a little big. I was still desperately craving a workout so we booked something in the early afternoon at Barry’s Soho. Needing caffeination & craving a croissant we made our way over to Monmouth Coffee Company where we both had a Pour Over, I got an Almond Croissant, & Ev got a Chocolate. We sat outside in the drizzle because it was honestly tolerable & we’d actually gotten to wear the raincoats we packed for once!

After our coffees & pastries we still had a little bit of time to burn so we went & perused the shops near Covent Gardens. Starting first in Barbour, I tried on several flannels & a sweater or two before designating it a loss for the day. Across the street at Scotch & Soda, where I’d had so much luck the previous trip, we tried on a varied assortment of the store but never landed on anything that we were head over heels for so off we went towards Soho for our appointment with Barry’s Bootcamp.

The class was a Barry’s Lift class which neither of us had ever taken, the sole difference between it & a traditional Barry’s class being that there was no cardio. That didn’t mean the class was easy, in fact it was one of the hardest ones I’d done, simply because of the massive amount of core work it entailed.

After class we grabbed protein shakes from the shake bar & made our way back through the city to our hotel to shower & get ready for the rest of our day ahead.

My “last night in London” OOTD was a Green Rag & Bone Sweater, Khaki Tellis AG Jeans, & White Goodfellow Trainers, a similar outfit, yet still different, from the one I wore for my Living Room Session two nights prior.

Vic & Rhys had to be out of their flat by 3 PM so we met them just across the street at their local pub, The Round House, where they sat surrounded by luggage, still working remote while sharing a pint. We sat with them awhile until hunger set in & we swung around the corner to Old Chang Kee for one of their “world famous” Singapore Style Curry Puffs! Ev & I both got our own Chicken & Curry Puff which we enjoyed immensely, then walked over to The Espresso Room for a Flat White & another Almond Croissant but unfortunately they were out of the latter.

While Victoria wrapped work, Evan, Rhys, & I formulated a plan for the evening. The soon-to-be Jones were staying at Heathrow for the night but still wanted to kick around London with us for a bit so we decided that we would drop their luggage off at our hotel room just around the corner, go about our business, & they could return with us, grab their stuff, & hop the Piccadilly Line to Heathrow. Victoria ended up moving one last appointment we had up so that we could all go out so Evan, Rhys, & I sat enjoying The Waldorf’s Cocktail & Canapé hour while we waited sat pretty in the Executive Lounge (*adjusts monocle). Hey, free booze is free booze. When Victoria arrived we sat enjoying the hors d’œvres for a while longer before hopping a cap over to Tayēr + Elementary.

T+E might sound familiar to any of you that are return readers of mine, it’s another spot we hit back in April & just happens to be considered one of the best bars in the world. Now if your plan is to say that we weren't too adventurous with new things this trip to London I think you’d be slightly mistaken. You see, much like EVE, Tayēr + Elementary’s menu is constantly changing & evolving inviting new experimental gastronomy into the mix so no two people’s experience at either place will ever be exactly the same. We also had only sampled “Elementary’s” menu last time as the two have completely separate menus & feels.

Though residing in the same building Elementary is the front bar & Tayēr the back. Sat around a large, chef’s table/tasting menu type set up I would say Tayēr is the sophisticate while Elementary the playful lending more towards the neighborhood bar feel.

We were actually the first people to enter Tayēr that night. Sat on the corner we each began picking out cocktails as well as little finger foods to nibble on. I typically go for the recommendations of the staff & this was no exception. I got the Haucate as well as a drink that consisted of Etna, Mandarin, & Pachouli & a Makrut Lime cocktail. In addition we ordered a Piña Colada Cheesecake to split, Prawn Couchette’s, & some form of Corn Dog, of which I cannot remember its contents.

Fairly buzzed we all stumbled back into a cab & returned to Soho & The Waldorf where The Jones’s retrieved their bags & Evan & I went off in search of more food.

Really wanting Nando’s seeing as it would be good & quick we made our way that way. The site said they closed at 10:30 but for whatever reason they’d decided at 9 PM to call it early so on our search for food went. We ended up happening to pass Blacklock, a chop shop that I had had on my “travel list” from the last go round. Blacklock readily let us in & we were shown to a seat near the entrance.

We were truly looking for an abbreviated dinning experience, feeling almost entirely ready to call it a night but still rather famished so we just threw in & went with the “All In,” a pre-chopped selection of Beef, Pork, & Lamb, along with two sides & Grilled Flat Bread. We devoured it though quickly the stuffiness of the basement restaurant, the heat, & the meat began to get to us & we had to evacuate the premises.

I truly wish that I could give Blacklock more of a glowing review, I do. The food was very good & the diversity of menu options, lengthy, but I fear falling just short of having a full blown panic attack in their primacies due to the stuffiness of the place, I’d be hard pressed to feel warm & fuzzy about it.

Anyway, feeling stuffed, but still wanting to satiate the dessert stomach we went in search of ice cream/gelato. Unfortunately all of the shops were closed so we called it a night, returning to the hotel defeated.

End Of Day Eight

Day Nine

Our last day in London we pushed that “late checkout” to the limit. We awoke & packed before we decided to make one last hoorah of London & heading over to Heathrow. We had stumbled upon Abuelo the day prior & I had made some joke about the restaurant simply being called “grandpa.” It decided to pull a full on Uno Reverse & say “look who’s laughing now” as it popped up for one of the top listed brunch spots in Covent Garden, so it became the destination of where we were to break our day’s fast.

Surprisingly enough, Abuelo is an Australian coffee shop, well, Australian with South American influences, & it did not disappoint. Evan & I order to share, something savory & something sweet, of which we would each eat half of then swap plates. Evan order our savory course, The Big Bondi (Avocado, Dukkah, Goat Cheese, Pickled Jalapeños, Cress & Flowers, & Egg atop Sourdough) & I the sweet; Banana Bread w/ Caramelized Cinnamon Peaches, Dulce De Leche Marscarpone, & Ginger Biscuit Crumb, in addition to a Cappuccino & a Pour Over respectively.

After a glorious breakfast we made our way to Tesco to grab a goodie bag for our flight attendants & made our way back to The Espresso Room in hopes that the Almond Croissant had made its triumphant return, it hadn’t, they were still out. So we shuffled, defeated, back to The Waldorf to collect our things & hop the tube to Heathrow.

Normally this is where I would leave you all. I would conclude the travel with our last meal or interesting feat we accomplished but in fact the intrigue of our voyage is not yet over. About halfway between Covent Garden & Heathrow the tube operator came over the speakers & announced the the Piccadilly Line would not be making its normal stop at the terminal that feeds Heathrow Terminal 2 & 3. As we were in Terminal 5 this was of no concern to us, though the rest of the passengers seemed less pleased. After each subsequent stop the same announcement was made until it changed, subtly. I truly think it was a slip of the tongue but the announcer added “due to its evacuation for public safety” to his announcement of the lapse in stop. I immediately pulled out Twitter.

The reason the train would not be stopping at Terminal 2 & 3 was that there had been a bombing threat upon Terminal 2 & the entirety of Terminal 2 had been evacuated. There never ended up being an actual bomb, as far as we know, but when we rolled through the train station for those two stops the feeling of unease in the car was palpable. The terminal was like a ghost town, not a person in sight. It was eerie. I’m just glad that no one got hurt & the threat itself ended up being nothing, again, as far as we know.

Off to Terminal 5 we went where security was a breeze & we sat in peace munching on Smoked Salmon Sandwiches until it was once again time to depart the dear United Kingdom.


End Of Day Nine

End Of Part Three

End Of Blog

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Travel Blog: United Kingdom: Part Two- Lochs & Lochs Of Loch

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Welcome back! Iffin you are reading the ‘welcome back’ as well as the ‘part two’ up in the title & scratching your head, this is the second blog stemming from my latest bit of travel to the United Kingdom. If you feel so inclined & want to feel caught up the link for Part One will appear just below this paragraph! With that settled & having us all agreed that ‘yes, we did indeed read the first part of this series,” shall we move on?

THE UNITED KINGDOM

PART TWO:





Day Four

We last left off our romp around the kingdom in Stranraer, Scotland. That too is where we shall resume at the morning after the festival, Sunday. Originally the plan for this day was to do a live broadcast Living Room Session, however we ended up needing to move it to Monday night because of some scheduling conflicts. Totally fine, we’re easy breezy over here. The plan after the originally proposed Sunday show for Evan & I was to drive up to Oban & scoot around the highlands for a bit before we made our way back to London. Seeing how that would now stretch things a little thin we opted for a trip around Loch Lomond instead.

We slept through breakfast at the North West Castle where we were staying, in favor of a recommendation we’d gotten from several people to dine at Fig & Olive. Unfortunately the Fig & Olive was closed for the day due to a private event they were catering (grumble, grumble) (nah, no hard feelings, make that dough y’all!) so instead we opted to try another breakfast spot. It too was closed. Then another. Also closed. Until finally we ended up just grabbing some sandwiches from a chain cafe, of which we shall not name here. Food & coffee (finally) acquired & gassed/petroled up, we made our way up the coast.

We knew the day would be a long one filled with driving, that was a no brainer, so we’d prepared to spend long hours in the car getting lost in the scenery as it passed. We had no real plans of stopping anywhere either, just followed wherever to road decided to take us. We took the A77/78 All the way up the coast until we got to where it cut across headed towards Glasgow. From there we hopped onto the A82 & headed north to Loch Lomond. I think it’s worth stating that I’m a fairly competent driver, I’m fine navigating small, bendy roads but the ones around Loch Lomond were a bit of a different story. The issue was not the roads themselves though, the issue was the people who would fly around the bend going full speed in the complete middle of the road with little to no regard for who or what lay around the corner, but we survived it, we made it through.

Loch Lomond is truly a beautiful region. The last has been designated as national park land as well so the Loch or Lake itself looks almost entirely untouched by human hands. Around Tarbet the road forks a bit, the continuation of the A82 looking like a side road jutting right. At this point I’d abandoned my GPS thinking “oh, I’ll just stay on the A82 until we hit Crainlarich & be fine.” This naturally ended in a wrong turn right at this exact spot. I’m honestly a little glad the wrong turn was made because we ended up stumbling upon The Slanj.

The Slanj is a bar/restaurant/café set inside a former church that was built in the 18th century. It sits in the valley of a few picturesque hills & serves a full traditional UK menu. We’d arrived just to pass a moment or two & I ended up getting a sampling of a local gin before we sat around, taking pictures & enjoying the afternoon. Once some time had passed it was back on to the A82 we went & on up into the highlands.

If you were with us for the previous installment in this UK series you’ll know that Evan set out this trip to capture an OOTD or Outfit Of The Day of mine. So I decided to put some thought in their planning! The OOTD of this day was a Blush Urban Outfitters Pullover Thermal, Black Tellis AG Jeans, White Goodfellow Trainers, Keiko Glasses from Warby Parker.

We hadn’t gone very before we stumbled once again into something unexpected, The Falls Of Falloch. Set just off the east side of the A82, the falls are just a short hike from the dirt lot where you park. Once we’d walked to the falls we were met by picnickers as well as quite a few people jumping into the pools set under the falls themselves. The water here had a very dark rust color to it, due to the iron rich soil, & the water was chilly, chilly, chilly. The falls quickly started to get busy so we packed up & headed on down the road.

Our next turn was at Crianlarich where we ditched the A82 for the A85 & headed farther east before looping back down towards Glasgow again. Along the way we passed Loch Lubhair which had some of the stillest, most pristine water I’d ever seen. If was calm but without the over abundance of algae that usually forms from still bodies of water. We looped through Callander where we stopped for gas & snacks before continuing on back to Dumfries.

We arrived back at the Donowho’s around half six/seven PM. They had lovingly waited for us to arrive to have dinner which I believe ended up being Italian for us. We sat around carb loading before we adjourned to the couch to finish off the night with a cuppa & conversation.

End Of Day Four




Day Five

Now was the day of our newly adjusted plan for the Living Room Session. As aforementioned the original plan had been to do our live broadcast Living Room Session on Sunday however certain things came up that required us to move it to this, the Monday in question. The start of our professional day started with an early lunch at Mrs Howat’s Vintage Pantry where the Donowhos, Evan & I congregated with Ross, Rhonda, & James to chart out the plan for the evening.

Leaving the Pantry more than a little full, each of us having ordered a slew of rather filling items, we returned to the home of the Donowhos to prepare for the evening but not before Evan managed to snag a few photos for his OOTD collection!

The OOTD in question was a Yellow Beanie & White Trainers by Goodfellow, Kaiki Colored Tellis AG Jeans, Keiko Glasses by Warby Parker, & a Blue Knit Sweater by H&M.

We had decided at lunch that in loo of the stage setting of the Royal Theatre we were going to use Ali & Carolann’s living room for the site of the first ever actual factual Living Room Session where a few select guests would be invited in & the whole thing would be simulcast over a number of different streaming sites.

We set up the room in preparation for the broadcast, moving many items of furniture to accommodate the space. We brought in a full speaker system, lighting rig, & a streaming rig, all were set up with a curtain backdrop. Ross then came in & began setting up each of the streaming portals & adjusting the live feed audio mix. We ended up starting a little later than anticipated but the show flowed easily & with only limited hitches along the way!

I did do a wardrobe change for the LRS, of which Ali referred to it as my “Jake Owen, ‘Barefoot, Blue Jean Night’ Moment.” It was exactly that. A Light Green Rag & Bone Sweater & Light Wash Blue Tellis AG Jeans. Naturally, I also went barefoot!

After we’d wrapped up the set & finished socializing it was time to eat. It had gotten pretty late in the evening, 10 or 11-ish, so Carolann & Ali opted to skip dinner but Carolann had spent the day making her incredible sweet potato curry recipe & I was on the verge of eating my arm off so Evan & I indulged.

End Of Day Five

Day Six

There wasn’t much planned for this day, I had asked Ali what his favorite dessert was given that his birthday was a few days later in the week. His reply was cheesecake which I immediately knew I had in the bag!

My mother has had a cheesecake recipe that she’s made for as many thanksgivings as I can remember. I’ve made it myself a few times, having had the task of its construction handed over to me in the preparations for the holiday & every time it is made it ends up being the belle of the dessert table. So off to the grocery store we went.

You don’t think about the discrepancies between UK & US culture, & if you do, I promise you’re probably not doing so when it comes to the grocer. Naturally, this didn’t cross my mind either until I was in the middle of the aisles, bobbling around, lost, looking for the things I needed that don’t exist on the standard United Kingdom shelf. For example. Graham Crackers. You know, graham crackers, one of the key ingredients of a NY Style Cheesecake? Having a loose understanding for the fare of the British Isles, I was able to improvise; two parts Digestive Crackers to one part Biscoff. It ended up being a pretty solid sub out! I put Evan to work on crumbing the dry ingredients while I took care of the wets.

I was a tad nervous when I’d pulled the cheesecake out of the oven as it didn’t quite look right. In a bit of a panic I called my mother who reassured me just to let it set & it would be fine, she was right. It turned out immaculate!

After the cheesecake was complete Evan & I decided to book a last minute distillery tour just down the street from Dumfries in Annan at Annandale Distillery. We got in on literally the last distillery tour of the day & were put in with a family visiting from England. Our tour was around forty-five minutes in length & went very in-depth on the incredibly interesting history of Annandale. Another discrepancy between the US & the UK is the lax drinking & driving laws that the US has compared to the UK. In the US the legal blood alcohol limit is .08, not that its a score to aim for, Scotland that legal limit is .02, & in England it is .00. So no drinks at all. When we booked the tour I had no realization of that until it came time to do tastings along the way. Since I drove, Evan got to do the tastings & I was promised a take home tasting at the end. Totally fine by me. However, when we got to the end of the tour I was met with a dram of one singular tasting, completely missing out on five of the other tasters the group had gotten along the way. So I purchased an additional tasting set to take back to the states for my own tour.

When we got back to Ali’s I broke open the dram. I was curious after all, I’d spent the last hour surrounded by people trying different whiskies & commenting on their characteristics that my FOMO had definitely gone into over drive. I enjoyed a peated whisky called The Man Of Swords which I enjoyed thoroughly! I still have yet to break into my sample stash, maybe I will once I finish this blog!

Gathering a bit of a buzz it was time for us to go eat. Ali & Carolann decided it was time to take the Americans to an American themed restaurant in town called The Hitching Post. I’m curious to know what all my Americans out there imagine a Scottish based & operated America themed restaurant consists of. Please, form your mental image, let me know what you think & what you would expect to find on the menu before I go ahead & tell you.

For my Americans, what an American restaurant in Scotland consists of is a bit of a love letter to Texas. The theming is definitely Wild West with little cactuses adorning the table & wagon wheels & cowboy paraphernalia dressing the walls. There is of course an American flag or two, most of them are painted on barn wood, as you do. As for the menu. It did have a rather large array of American cuisines. From burgers to bbq to pizza & philly cheesesteaks, all are present & accounted for, which then prompted to the question at the table between Evan & I, if we were to design an American restaurant, what would it be like?

After a lengthy discussion we landed on the need for a BBQ section, sorted regionally, a cookout menu, a regional specific menu (Philly cheesesteaks, Maryland crab cakes, Meat & Threes, California burritos, etc), & general American (wings, mozzarella sticks, quesadillas, etc.). The theming would also be regional, carrying different influence from room to room.

Once we were stuffed full of pizza we returned once again to abode Donowho where we broke into Ali’s freshly baked birthday cheesecake & had a cuppa before sharing what would be the last of our late night conversations until we meet again!



End Of Day Six

END OF PART TWO

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Travel Blog: United Kingdom: Part One- York & The Festival

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As many of you know, I have a great love for the United Kingdom & the people that live there. It has also been clear, for many years now, that the United Kingdom also shares a great love for yours truly & my music! My first trip there, back in August of 2019, was actually a trip entirely planned around a festival, Park Fest, in Stranraer. Again, that was back in 2019. Naturally, due to the global pandemic, Park Fest was put on hold for 2020 & even 2021 making its resurrection this year some what of a homecoming for a lot of those involved. I was asked fairly early on in the planning phases of this year’s Park Fest whether or not I’d be willing to make the trip to play it, I was more than happy to snag a spot in the line up.


THE UNITED KINGDOM

PART ONE:



Day One

The original plan for the trip was to arrive Thursday morning, grab the rental car, & immediately make our way to Dumfries. When planning Ali, who was gracious enough to play host to me & contract Ross to help assemble a band on my behalf, & I had originally talked about having the band rehearsal for the show on that Friday before heading to Stranraer on Saturday for the festival. However, plans change & we ended up having to push rehearsal to Saturday afternoon to accommodate all of the musicians playing, totally fine! So now having a new day free we decided to go up the East Coast of England & stay the night in one of the towns there.

We arrived around mid to late morning having barely slept a wink on the flight over. Our immediate mission on the way to the rental agency was to poll our destination. We reached out to all of our UK friends asking whether we should go to Newcastle, Nottingham, Cambridge, or York. Everyone basically unanimously gave us York, so we started up Central England towards York.

We arrived in York in the early evening beelining to our hotel where the plan was to shaft from our travel clothes to something nicer in which to explore the town & take a few choice photos here & there! Our hotel was the Hilton York Tower, set literally across the street from Clifford’s Tower, one of the largest remaining fragments of the York Castle.

Once checked in, showered, & changed we set out to explore the town of York before our evening reservation at the North African restaurant, Los Moros.

Evan had this idea to take what he referred to as my OOTD, or Outfit Of The Day. Despite having packed in a frenzy I had managed to piece together a unique outfit for each day of our trip all while maintaining a suitcase weight of around 40 lbs & compensating for the swings in weather & the varied temperatures we would be experiencing throughout our eight days spent in the United Kingdom.

We actually did a proper photoshoot too, going around the York City Centre finding cool backgrounds to fill the negative space of each of the photos. For this OOTD I had chosen a Scotch & Soda Tan Knit Button Shoulder Sweater, a pair of Light Blue AG Jeans in the Tellis fit, Brown Aston Grey Work Boots, & Keiko glasses by Warby Parker. It was a tad chilly in York so the covering was much appreciated.

After we were satisfied with the photos taken we stopped off in The Shambles, the street of shops that inspired JK Rowling’s creation of Dragon Alley for the Harry Potter books. The parallels are abundantly clear to all who have seen the street as well as partook in Potter media. After our exploratory walk it was dinner time.

Los Moros is up near York Minster on the North side of the town center. It is in a small, unassuming three story town home that you would never guess, from its exterior, is brimming with color & flavor. Upon arriving we were shown upstairs to our table over looking the street below. I swung back downstairs to wash my hands having tripped on one of the steps near the riverside & was greeted by the cutest of outdoor courtyards where people dined under lattice adorned with tiled lamps & greenery.

Dinner was exquisite. We ordered a bottle or Romanian Pinot Noir to split & order off the menu “family style.” Our dinner consisted of a bowl of Casablanca Olives, Hummus with Rose Harissa, Olive Oil, Pine Nuts, & Flat Bread, Batata Hara, a Spicy Potato dish with Coriander, Garlic, & Turkish Pepper Paste, ZFC Chicken fried in Za’atar & Sumac with a Preserved Lemon Mayonnaise, Smoked Haddock Crocketts with Rosa Harissa Aioli, Beef Tanjia; Slow Cooked Ox Tail with Saffron, Preserved Lemon, Button Creamery Cumin Gouda Mash Potatoes, Pickles, & Lamb Jus, & a Chocolate Cardamom & Coffee Mousse with Chantilly Cream & Pistachio Crumble. Need I say more?! All of it, without exception, was incredible. There isn’t a thing within that order that I would change or alter!

The original plan after dinner was to go out, to hit the town & a few cocktail bars, however, the lack of sleep caught up to us & we made our way sheepishly back to the hotel with stuffed bellies. Pretty sure we were both asleep before our heads hit the pillows.

End Of Day One

Day Two

We awoke later than we had intended, our initial plan was to get on the road early to Dumfries but we decided to roll with is & grab breakfast before our cross-country drive. I had scouted a restaurant just a short walk from the hotel called The Blue Barbakan. The Blue Barbakan is a Polish Restaurant with an “extra multi-European twist.” We, however, arrived around fifteen minutes prior to their opening & resort to initiating the daily hunt so many of us engage in for caffeine.

Coffee was found just across Foss Bridge from The Barbakan at a very quant little cafe called Kiosk. We used to queue formed out its door as a gage for the coffee being brewed inside & were not let down by the parade of patiently placed patrons. The coffee was wonderful, the venue charming. The owner had even thrown an assortment of ceramic ware specifically for his shop of which the title card for them read “Here There Be Monsteras,” something I still am in awe of each time its cleverness passes my brain.

Coffee acquired & consumed & time passed it was now time to return to The Blue Barbakan!

We stepped up into a wood paneled room adorned with framed photos & chalkboards baring the restaurant’s specials. We were instructed by a woman, who I assume was the owner, to sit anywhere we like so we chose a table sat next to a lace curtained window overlooking the bridge. I ordered another coffee & a water & when I asked the matron of the house what I should get she suggested the Full English. Not usually one to do so, I ignored her recommendation as a weeks worth of “full english breakfasts” were staring me down. I opted for the Duck Rumor with Smoked Salmon & Evan the Poached Eggs with Smoked Salmon.

I was elated with the Duck Rumor. Truthfully, I am so glad I ignored her suggestion & went with my gut. Duck Rumor is a ramequin filled with Buttered Creamed Spinach, topped with Smoked Salmon & a Duck Egg before being baked in the oven. Think of it like an Eastern European Uova In Purgatorio. It was served with fresh Brown Bread to scrape the contents of the ceramic over, I could have eaten it forever.

After we paid the bill we popped back over to our hotel where we gathered our belongings & set off again, waving York a very fond farewell.

The ride to Dumfries took us up by Newcastle, where we originally had planned to stay. We got stuck in traffic here as one of the highways is currently undergoing rather massive renovations. Passing by the Angel of the North we made our way West along the A69, a route that used to be used to patrol Hadrian’s Wall, of which many of the pieces still exist to this day. From Carlisle we went backroads all the way to Dumfries where we arrived in the mid-afternoon.

Not to miss my OOTD, Evan immediately had me go out into the neighborhood & do I brief shoot. Never have I felt more self conscious doing a photoshoot than in the middle of a residential neighborhood but that day the outfit consisted of a Blue Goodlife Pullover, Tan Tellis AG Jeans, Yardley Glasses by Warby Parker, & White Goodfellow Trainers!

The rest of our evening was pretty relaxed; we ordered Indian take away from Seimo Seito with Carolann (Tikka Masala, Assorted Naans, & Seimo Seito Masala), then Ross & Ali joined after overseeing Panto auditions for the Royal Theatre. We sat around the rest of the evening exchanging stories, talking about the plans for the day to follow, & generally having a grand ole time. It wasn’t until one or two AM that we were all off to bed.


End Of Day Two



Day Three

The Saturday started about 9 AM with a briefing on the day’s plans from the Donowhos & a cuppa. Ali had a midday set in Stranraer in addition to an evening set in Loch Raven. The plan for me on the other hand was to grab some brekkie, go to band practice, & then make my way to Stranraer where we were to stay the night after my 7 PM set & interview. So having keys in hand & having said goodbye to the Donowhos, wishing Ali lucking in my own special way, we went in search for breakfast in the Dumfries town square.

I can’t recall the place we originally planned to dine but they were closed for whatever reason, so we ended up at Elevenses. I ordered a London Fog, which was on special, & Evan had a cappuccino, both were excellent! For breakfast I had the “Flower Of Scotland” which was basically their Full Scottish Breakfast, Haggis, Tattie Scones, & All! By the time we finished our brunch it was time to head over to the rehearsal space which was a studio just south of the town center.

We arrived just before noon where we were greeted by Ross who informed us that our guitarist for the day, Finlay, had unfortunately missed his bus out of Glasgow & was now running two hours behind. So we rolled with it. I played acoustic, Ross drums, & Ruairi played bass & we just went through the set top to bottom taking the time to make changes & corrections along the way. We had a brief break before Finlay arrived & we ran through the songs once more before throwing all of the gear in the rental & beginning the hour & a half trek to Stranraer.

If any of you have read my previous travel blogs in which I have travelled to The United Kingdom, you will know that I have a great love for a little smokehouse off the route to Stranraer/Port Patrick. It used to go by Marrbury Smokehouse but has since changed hands & now boasts the name OakHill Cafe & Deli. Their smoked salmon is still equally as delightful as before & feeling a bit peckish along the way we just managed to squeeze in before closing time to snag one of their incredible Smoked Salmon Sandwiches. Don’t worry, they pre-make them daily so we didn’t put anyone to work at closing time on our behalf.

We arrived in Stranraer around 5:15 & immediately headed to Agnew Park to check in. Having received our festival wrist bands, dropped gear, & squaring everything away with the festival promotion team, who are lovely by the way, we went to drop our stuff off at the hotel & get changed for the show.

My set was at 7 PM, as aforementioned above, but I think we ended up taking the stage closer to 7:10. I had planned a forty-five minute set that actually ended up being perfectly timed on my behalf actually cutting a few songs before we even rang the first notes. I did an acoustic set in the middle of the overall full band set just to break things up & give the band a bit of a break but over all I was more than happy with how the show went & how it turned out! After we finished I helped the guys pack up their things, took my guitar back to the room, & returned to enjoy the festivities.

Of course the OOTD photoshoot had to happen, so that was also a part of the evening. For my set I had wore an Oversized Jackson Brand White T-Shirt (RIP) under a Mauve Suede Zara Jacket with Light Wash Tellis AG Jeans (noticing a trend here?), & the Goodfellow White Trainers.

After the brief shoot I was due for an interview with Jinx Sullivan of DG9 Radio. I always enjoy my interviews with Jinx because she always asks the most interesting questions! When she last interviewed me she had brought a rolodex of questions that we just kept going through because we were having so much fun with the interview, I think it ended up being at least an hour long though. This time I think we ended up talking for 30-45 minutes, recorded that is, we continued to talk after for a long while before my hunger once again set in & I needed to search the streets for sustenance.

My first time in Stranraer I was introduced to Curry, Cheese, & Chips after my set. It was love at first bite & also somewhat very familiar due to its similarity to Poutine here in the States & Maneet Chauhan having Tandoori Chicken Poutine on her Chauhan menu. It felt like something I needed to carry on as a new tradition though. So with that in mind we ended up at Istanbul Kebab & Pizza House where we both got an order of Curry, Cheese, & Chips only this time with Kebab Chicken added to it! It smacked. Truly, truly smacked.

We hung around the festival a bit longer, taking in several of the other acts, before we headed back to the hotel to tuck in for the night. I suppose its also worth noting that what had started as an afternoon in the high seventies had ended in an evening in the high 40s, so we were also a tad freezing & caught unprepared for the chill.

End Of Day Three

END OF PART ONE

Blog: Well If It Isn't The Consequences Of My Own Actions...

TW: Transphobic Comments, Anti-LGBTQ Rhetoric, Strong Language

If you aren’t a listener of country music or if you don’t pay attention to news cycles, the events of the last week may have completely missed you. If you’re reading that first line going “yeah, I don’t have a clue what you could be alluding to,” allow me to fill you in. Failed artist & second wife to country singer (a gracious title at best) Jason Aldean, Brittany Aldean, posted something regarding trans/LGBTQ kids & in which she referred to the plight of trans kids & their desire for gender affirmation comparing it to a “tom boy phase” & being “glad he parents didn’t change her gender” when she went through it. To which the conservative side of the country industry all started pilling in on, her husband Jason even going so far as to say “yeah, I don’t think we would have worked out.”

Cassadee Pope called her out on twitter with the following tweet:

Maren Morris then joined in on the rhetoric & tweeted the following:

To which Fox News pundit & overall really atrocious human Candace Owens replied:

The two then went back & forth giving the following exchange:

“Artists” like Aldean & RaeLynn also begin sharing their support for Brittany’s remarks along with the wife of one hit wonder, Chuck Wicks, & Whitney Duncan.

Later country artist, Ryan Hurd, & subsequent husband to Morris also weighed in tweeting the following:

And round & round it went including RaeLynn spending a bachelorette weekend toting a “Daddy T” hat & owning the moniker of ‘Insurrection Barbie,” Aldean & Wicks dropping a fundraiser for victims of child trafficking through the sale of shirts that said “Don’t Tread On Our Kids” of which only part of the proceeds went to the charity in question, & Maren posting a reel of a speech she gave live at a show the evening of the happenings stating the following:

So why bring this all up? Why dedicate an entire blog to this infighting within the country music world? Well, because for once, there were consequences for the actions of those involved.

It’s not hard to guess what side of this argument I fall on. I struggle to find a member of my friend group & chosen family who do not belong to the Alphabet Mafia. I also want to make it clear that I’m not over here trying to be divisive or throw my hat into the ring where this argument is concerned, I want to highlight a point here & in actuality, maybe help bridge the wide ass political gap this country has at the moment.

Yesterday it was announced the GreenLight Publicity Firm, a firm that has worked with Jason for the entirety of his career will be dropping Aldean as a client, due to the harmful narrative that he & his wife helped to perpetuate this week. Now before you start going all “cancel culture this” & “cancel culture that” & “they’re trying to silence us” & “blah, blah, blah” let’s pause & examine shall we?

I have no issue with being politically opposed where issues of state & finance are concerned. I’m fine to sit down & have a conversation with someone who swings right about how we as a country spend our money or the advantages & disadvantages of certain social services, etc, etc. However, where the divide in this country has materialized is not about policy any longer, I will say in this instance the MAGA crowd is correct, it’s about morality only there within the Far Right lives a fallacy built on blame, name calling, & division. We are no longer voting along the lines of policy, we are voting along the lines of morality, & morality & human rights are not up for debate.

I don’t know if you as a reader have ever struggled with being a societal “other;” whether you’re BIPOC, or Queer, or an immigrant, or any combination of the above, it’s hard simply getting by day to day. It is no easy feat for a young individual to come to the conclusion that they are trans or non-binary. It is no easy feat to outwardly choose to expose & express yourself as a member of the “other” knowing full well you may face the ire of those who view themselves “morally opposed” to who you are as a person & human being. There in lies the line we as a society, are fortunately, starting to draw.

Things were bleak in the states for a while during the years of Trump especially for those in the societal minorities. I’m sure if you’re a long time reader of mine you can not the point when I stopped feeling the need to constantly report on the harmful policies being put in place. For those of us who exist on the fringe the last couple years have started to feel more & more hopeful, after four years of dread.

Along with this hope, especially in the last year or so, has come a return in what is becoming more or less socially acceptable & the morality of The US as a country has swung back more in the direction of progress & inclusivity as opposed to scapegoating & fear mongering. With this uptick in “um, that’s not okay” has also come the natural progression of people like Aldean seeing the consequences that hateful, ignorant comments will land you. Have a lot of his fanbase doubled down? Of course, it’s hard to change a mind through a news cycle but it is refreshing to see, especially in country music, someone get chastised for the harmful things they perpetuate & outwardly endorse.

I’ve never identified as a trans individual, I’ve have never felt any inkling that I was born in the wrong body, so I can’t imagine how hard of an identity that is to come to terms with. I’m sure a lot of you reading this fall in that boat as well, but imagine you’ve wrestled with who you are for the entirety of your life & finally have the clarity & peace of mind to express that outwardly. I can’t imagine what an uphill battle it must be just getting through the day to day with the filth people spew at you just for trying to claim your happiness & wholeness. I can’t imagine simply wanting to use a restroom & being assaulted both physically & verbally for it. I can’t imagine posting a picture where you finally see the person you’ve always known you were underneath & having people accost you over the internet. I simply cannot imagine it because it is outside of anything within my field of experience but I empathize with you. I stand with you. I recognize your struggle & am here to be whatever you need me to be.

We as a country, as a world, are sorely lacking empathy. We get so caught up in the “me, me, me’s” that we lose sight of the “us.” I’m glad these ignorant comments & harmful policies are no longer going unchecked. It’s how we build a world that is more inclusive & supportive of everyone, not just those who look, act, sound, & identify like us.

I’m sorry for the late posting on this, the jet lag really did me in this weekend but if you’d like to donate to help trans youth across the country Maren Morris is currently selling shirts where 100% of the proceeds go to the Trans Lifeline & the GLAAD Trans Media Project. I’ll post the link about it below:

As always I hope you’ve had a fantastic weekend, much love to each of you. I challenge you this week to lean into your discomfort, to sit down & hear or read the story of someone whose life is on the societal fringe. Then I challenge you to find that glowing ember of empathy in your heart.

-C

I feel called to finish this off with a quote from the late Billy Block who would always close out his radio segment with “Remember, if you see someone without a smile, give them yours.”

Have a great holiday weekend!

Blog: Hello Seasonal Depression, Welcome Back I Guess...

TW: Depression

I honestly can’t recall what my original plan was for today’s blog. I’m certain I had it burning in the back of my mind all day until I had this prompt come zipping in. I know a lot of you who read these weekly installments of my life & thoughts also suffer from mental maladies like myself but for those of you who don’t understand seasonal depression & the way if informs your life I wanted to share this simple story.

It’s incredibly hard to explain but I can feel when autumn starts to slip in, the air & sunlight shift from the bright warmth of summer to the almost artificial feeling of the late summer/early autumn sun. Again, hard to explain, but the tinge of sunlight shifts from a bright, clear all encompassing hot to an oddly indirect yellowed glow. There’s something different in the way the air smells too, it gains a mustiness & a stuffiness.

If you have seasonal depression you know exactly what I’m talking about because it exacts a sense of overwhelming dread. You try to ignore it, but you can feel it in your bones. You can feel the sun slipping farther away & feel the days begin to shrink.

I imagine it’s a lot like how plants feel. They follow the sun from Spring into Summer & then are forced to put a pause on all of the progress & growth they’ve made with the abundance of light & retreat into themselves to winterize.

If you don’t have seasonal depression I imagine you read the above three paragraphs with a “WTF” kind of expression on your face or images of lunacy in your head but those I know with the same affliction as me can attest to this.

Anyway, I felt the sun start to slip away about a week ago, at least that’s when it became noticeable to me internally. I remember I was running errands & was outside & it just hit me out of the blue. I managed to push past the sense of dread for the time being but then it hit me again a few days later, & again this afternoon.

The dread isn’t the depression part, the sense of foreboding does not automatically equate “seasonally depressed” that’s where the next step comes in.

I was walking through the freezer section of Sprouts today, picking up some Paleo hot pockets when my Depression Kitty came walking down the aisle (Big Mouth reference, if you get it, you get it). She strolled right up to my wrapped around my shoulders & dissolved into my body & immediately I wanted nothing more than to crawl into bed & not exist.

That’s more language that I’m sure is alarming to those with those blessed by the Serotonin Gods. When I say “crawl into bed & not exist” it has nothing to do with my will or lack of will to live, at least to me. I have no intentions of self harm, I just want to not exist, to dig a dark hole & lay in it for however long it takes. Again, I’m sure to a lot of you that sounds morbid but it’s the honest truth of how depression feels to me.

During depressive states I can lay wrapped up in bed doing absolutely nothing for hours. I don’t get bored or cry or anything, I simply lay & stare at the wall. I know it sounds SOOOOO productive to our Capitalist minds but existing in the void for a little while is what it is.

Do I wish I were different? That I wasn’t afflicted by it? Of course, but so do all who have to watch “normal” people live out there lives free of the hinderances of mental illness. It’s debilitating & the reason I write about it today is to help those of you who don’t understand to have a glimpse of what it’s like & for those of you that do, to know you have a kindred spirit in me who does understand.

One of the hardest things as someone who is both neuro-divergent & afflicted by SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) is trying to make people who don’t have either understand what it’s like to be one of us. I have been blessed with the knowledge of words & the ability to convey things through them that I feel helps to put most of this in layman’s terms.

Being someone with SAD (so delicately named) can make you feel like an outsider, it can make you feel crazy, or truly detached from the world around you especially in Autumn & Early Winter. You are faced with a constant barrage of people who are so excited for the Fall or the Holidays; wearing sweaters, making soup, cozying up & you have to do your best not to let it hurt your feelings because to me & those like me, the colder months are a constant fight to keep your head above the surface, to not appear like a downer or an outsider. To people like me it often feels like celebrating the fall or winter is in some way celebrating the hardest time of the year from us & then rubbing it in our faces. Just like so many of you can’t relate to not loving all things autumn, we can’t relate to the feeling of liking it.

Let me be clear, this is not a “piss off, I don’t wanna hear about the things you like because they make me want to dissolve into a vapor,” type of post. I’m just trying to help you understand. I’m trying to help you see how your friends & loved ones who have SAD feel & maybe offer them a break or a little bit of patience.

Before I close out I know what the next line of this conversation will be; why don’t you get help? A lot of us do, myself included. During the cooler months my script for Bupropion switches from a base 150mg to 300 & that’s just to keep my head above water. There’s no simple answer to depression & what causes it & not every solution works for all of us. We still have days where just the act of getting out of bed is literally like hauling a piano up a flight of stairs even if you are medicated & at a healthy base line. Please be patient with us & know that even if we refuse your help, we always appreciate the ask. If you find yourself as someone who also finds the Earth’s gravity turned up to eleven during the cold, I see you & understand your pain. Help is out there & available, there are a ton of resources on line & many free clinics offered by civil services around the world. Don’t be afraid to ask for help, though I know how hard it can be at times.

Much love to you all as always,

Welcome to autumn I guess haha,

I’ll see you back here next week!

-C

Blog: Now You're Family

I swear this is my last blog about Fiji…unless you’d like it not to be, I’m sure I can squeeze another two or three stories & life lessons out of that amazing trip! For now I’ll leave you all with this blog in hopes that it leaves you as inspired & hopeful as the experience did me!

One thing I thing that ended up being very different from my expectation of Fiji was the reality of it. I think we’re often times, especially in the US, thought to view Fiji as the perpetual postcard; a place where no matter where you look you’ll find picturesque white sand beaches, palm trees, & crystal clear waters & while that does exist it is definitely an exception, not the rule.

Majority of the residents of Fiji live below, what we in the western world would deem, the poverty line. The housing of those who dwell on the islands often consist of tin roofed, one room homes with an outdoor kitchen & while I’m sure a lot of us would find this difficult, the Fijians don’t seem to let it dampen their spirits.

It’s true of a lot of tourism driven countries where the lives of those who were born & raised in said country live drastically different lives than what those visiting are presented with, it creates an odd disconnect. There’s a very odd feeling when you’ve spent x amount of dollars to fly halfway across the world, hop on a privately escorted shuttle service, & are being taken to a resort whose rooms are bigger than majority of the homes of those who reside there. It’s an odd disconnect when you’re met with something clearly meant to welcome visitors that often has an “off limits” feel to those whose country it is.

This is not the point of my blog, but I feel its worth mentioning in order to set the scene for what I want to talk about.

While riding in one of the aforementioned private escort shuttles to go river tubing I overheard a conversation between one of my fellow divers, Elaine, & our driver that day. Elaine had sat up front with the driver & the two had been talking for quite a while before he mentioned the following. He said to Elaine that even though the Fijians may not have the room or the food outright, there is always room at the table & room in the home for one more. That no matter how hard life appears they are always willing to sacrifice a little room or a little food for someone else. I soon found out this was a common feeling amongst the Fijian people.

I wish for the life of me I could remember our driver’s name that day, shame on me for forgetting the openness & outward kindness of a stranger, but he also mentioned that to Fijians, once you’ve been on to the islands once, you’re a part of them. He said that to his people each of us was now family & that at any given time their doors were open to us for as long as we wanted or needed.

Wouldn’t it be amazing if the rest of the world worked that way? Wouldn’t it be amazing if we all thought as such & acted as such? That no matter how hard things were for us, we always have the time & energy to embrace those who come knocking on our door & say “how can I help?”

You see it occurs to me that the people that have the most, the countries that have the most, are often the ones who are most cut off to helping their “family.” We were welcomed, graciously, into a home in a village with around twenty people. Asked to take a seat, to make ourselves comfortable, & were then offered a portion of the owner’s lunch. A lunch that he had to farm for six months to get to produce crop. He not only offered us up the portion, but the entirety of what he had to eat for that afternoon with a beaming smile & radiant joy! Why aren’t we all like that?

We, in the US, have so, so much. A lot of us do anyway. Yet we shut our hearts, homes, & borders off to those who desperately need to be welcomed, to be shown through the door, welcomed, & offered a plate & a seat at the table & if they are offered entry it’s usually with stipulations. You have to give your life to MY God, have to work towards MY system, have to do something for MY cause or life. Acts of kindness & support rarely come simply from the goodness of ones heart. We need to cut the divides, to cut the ego & the “I’m better than” attitudes, & proudly exclaim to those who come willingly to our door “now you’re family.”

I hope you have a fantastic weekend & find a little moment or two over the next week to make a stranger feel loved, even in the smallest capacity.

Much love to you all,

-C

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Travel Blog: Fiji: Part Two- Sharks, Kava, & A Leisurely Float Down A River

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Bula! Welcome back!

If you’re reading the above line & saying to yourself “welcome back?! To what?!” & if the giant “Part Two” in the title wasn’t clue enough there is a previous installment to this, my Fiji travel blog. If you haven’t given “Part One” a read I highly recommend you do so. I’ll attach the link to it below! Give that a read & swing back over here when you’re finished! Enjoy!

PART ONE

FIJI

PART TWO:

Day Five

Are we ready for it?! I know a lot of you who have been following this saga of travel were excited to get to today because today we’re talking about the SHARK DIVE!!!!!!

I did end up waking up at 6 AM to finish my vlogs as I mentioned I planned to do at the end of part one & I worked right up until 7 AM when it was time to once again descend the hill & eat breakfast. I chose to go back to Muesli that morning favoring something with a bit more variety to once again cross into the Beqa Passage seeing as my stomach had been fine the day prior. Not sure why I thought maybe it wouldn’t I’ve never been one who was prone to sea sickness. Our call time for the boat was fairly early as the dive site sat around forty-five minutes to an hour away from Waidorka.

A little background info on the shark dive site, Shark Reef Marine Reserve. Back before the site was declared a Marine Reserve by the government of Fiji it used to just be an ordinary strip of the Beqa Passage that fishermen would sure to drive from Suva or Pacific Harbor out to sea & fish. The fishermen, wanting to cut time from their required work load, would get to work gutting & cleaning their catch on the way back home for the night. During this time spent navigating the Beqa Passage the fishermen would dump the undesirable bits of fish of the boat into the water below. This naturally attracted sharks, which, over time, began to inhabit the Passage & congregate there because of the guaranteed meal. The Fijian government took notice of this & in an effort to increase tourism as well as lend a hand in shark conservation named a point in the passage as Shark Reef Marine Reserve. They sank several old boats there in an attempt to supplement the reef & give smaller, more reclusive species of sharks, spots to hide away, in addition to cutting some of the strong current so that divers wouldn’t simply be blown away while visiting. They also built what they deemed “The Arena.”

“The Arena” is a somewhat circular, sunken part of the reef. On the western edge of the arena the Fijian government has built a wall out of reef rock that sits about 2-3 feet high & goes the entire circumference of the western edge, beginning & ending on either end of the natural reef. In the middle of “The Arena” is a mooring site, however, this mooring site is not intended for boats, its intended use is to chain up a bin full of chum that will then be dumped into the arena once the day’s divers are in place, triggering a shark feeding frenzy. Some people have mixed feelings about “The Arena” & feel that it hinders the natural flow of the eco system causing the sharks to be dependent upon humans for food & allowing the fish populations to grow unchecked because the sharks don’t have to put out the energy to hunt them.

On the way out to the site Jodi informed us that unfortunately the reserve was only able to get a single bin of chum for the day. Typically they bring in two, one for each dive & you get to experience the madness twice but apparently the fishing boats came in light the night before & only had enough to fill one bin. The new plan was to dive the wrecks around the reef, then the reserve worker would bring in the one bin of food they had & essentially parade it around “The Arena” teasing the sharks into believing they’re about to get fed. Then things would go as previously planned for the second dive.

You know you’ve arrived at Shark Reef Marine Reserve because, ironically enough, the land adjacent to it looks like a shark fin jetting out of the island. We got to the site earlier than the boat from Pacific Harbor & earlier than the crew from the reserve so we had to sit around & wait a bit for them all while completely suited up because, as Jodi said, once the reserve crew roll up, it’s go time, they don’t wait on you at all.

While we were waiting the water began to become more & more active, more & more figures started to show up just below the surface. Nurse sharks. Completely harmless to humans, the nurse sharks at the reserve have begun swimming up to the surface when the dive boats moor under the impression that they’ll get fed for doing so, they never do. Dee, our captain, spotted the reserve boat coming on the horizon & it was time to get into the literal shark infested waters.

I’d be lying if I said I weren’t a bit nervous. I’d never done a shark dive before, nor had I ever been that up close & personal with such large predatory animals before. Let me be clear here, I’m not afraid of sharks, I think they’re severely demonized & misunderstood creatures, but I do hold a great deal of respect for them & understand the damage they’re capable of inflicting. All of that being said…I was the first in the water. The absolute first. I knew that the longer I waited the more the anxiety of anticipation would build so I just bit the bullet & took the plunge.

Immediately after I got into the water & grabbed ahold of the towline & looked down. The Passage was murky, probably visibility of around 40-50 feet but at the edge of that range I was a massive bull shark circling below, which much to my surprise, made me immediately excited.

Once we were all on in the water & on the line we began our decent. At around 25 feet we hit the top of the reef, sliding a little farther down the side we began to circumnavigate the outcroppings of rock & coral filled with fish. I was so preoccupied with the aquatic life to my right that I didn’t noticed the Bull Shark had returned & was passing a mere five feet to my right before carrying on around the reef.

We circled the reef ending up at the first sunken vessel in the passage. Turned upside down the hull was littered with little clusters of corals holding tight to the eroding metal. Around the side of the ship I found a massive pair of Green Filefish before turning to once again find the Bull Shark passing by. I wish I had pictures of both the Filefish & the Bull Shark passing to present to you all but I guess my camera had been off since the time of my decent til we got to the edge of “The Arena.”

We were all lined up against the wall of “The Arena,” knees planted on the sea bed. Elaine & I took up the far right end with Sam, our Fijian Dive guide behind us, & the rest of the group filled in along the row. Once we were all in place the diver from the reserve brought in the chum bin.

The chum bin was a massive yellow trash can with clips on the lid & a ten foot chain connecting it to the diver above. He carried it through the water like a marionette, rattling the chains & his dive rattle along the way to draw the fish in. He initially just hooked it to the mooring & chilled above it ringing his rattles but then went & unhooked it to carry it around the arena.

The Nurse Sharks were especially interested in the bin, diving over one another to get closest to the lid, while the Black Reef Sharks, Bull Sharks, Lemon Sharks, Black & Silver Tipped Reef Sharks, & remainder of the fish merely circled around the ring.

After being in aw of the sharks for around twenty minutes as the reserve diver maneuvered the trash can around, we began our ascend back to the boat. Elaine noticed that Sam had stopped to have an interaction with a Moray that I clearly missed because I was too entranced in a school of Spade Fish gathered by the boat mooring.

We surfaced, sat & ate through our surface interval & awaited instruction from the reserve workers on when it was feeding time.

During our surface time Elaine asked Sam about the Eel. He explained, much like the reserve does for the sharks, he feels the Eel in hopes of it sticking around & becoming less reclusive. He explained that over the span of several months he went from having the Eel hide from him to being able to hold it & feed it by hand. The Eel also comes out of the rock work exclusively for him when he comes to dive the site. He then asked if we wanted to pet it to which we both gave an exuberant “yes!”

Our second dive began with less meandering. We were in the water & guided straight down to the rock wall where we lined up in basically the same fashion, except that I got nudged further down the right side so that I was between the wall & the reef with literally about a foot of space total wiggle room. Once we were all lined up against the wall the diver from the reserve returned & began working to unlock the bin. He worked diligently at each of the clamps until at last all were free & be began to tug the chain that would overturn the garbage bin.

No sooner than he had gone to over turn the bin did a large rush of current sweep in to snatch the receptacle. The surge first carried the yellow can south before the chain went taught & began swinging it west towards us. It stopped about 20-30 feet directly in front of my & dumped the entirety of its contents. The sharks immediately went into a frenzy darting in & out of the mess of fish heads & scales. I couldn’t help but shrink a little. Here, less than thirty feet away from me were hundreds of sharks of all varying sizes, species, & temperaments fighting for food that was all blowing in my direction.

At one point a large Bull Shark got stuck in the bin & writhed around in it until it sprang free, several fish heads in its mouth. Another Bull rushed in, grabbed a collection of three large fish heads & began swimming directly at Elaine, Sam, & I closely followed by another Bull who was fighting to get one or two of the heads out of the other shark’s mouth. The picture here is the best I got of the kerfuffle, please note that my GoPro was tucked in at hip height so while it looks like they’re well above me, they were within a distance where I probably could have reached out & grabbed a fish head of my own. Sam had to bump the sharks away with a large metal hook & Elaine & I exchanged a “WTF was that” look before returning our attention to the Sharknado before us.

The feeding frenzy lasted around twenty minutes even calling in a reclusive White Tipped Reef Shark or two. There used to actually be a resident Tiger Shark as well named Princess, but she hasn’t been seen at the site since COVID kept the feeding crews away.

Once the sharks began to dissipate we were prompted to head back to our mooring for our safety stop. Sam stopped Elaine & I & prompted us to follow. He then took is to a little outcropping of the reef where a Green Moray came wiggling out of the rocks & proceeded to receive scratches from Sam. He then prompted Elaine to come over & give it a pat & a scratch before the attention was passed to me. I anchored on the rock & came in slowly being sure to stretch well over the apparent biting range of the Eel & gave it a few scratches at the back of its head.

The Eel felt completely different than I expected it to. You know how often times you think to yourself “yeah, I’m pretty sure my brain can piece together what that’ll feel like based on the things I’ve touched in my life?” Well the idea my brain had of what a Moray Eel feels like was completely off. First off it’s very mucus-y. The slimy part I’m sure a lot of you had pegged, but its skin almost has no tension to it, almost like poking the top of a jellyfish or feeling a thick plastic bag underwater except its covered in slime.

We departed from the Eel & made our way back to the mooring site, saying “hello” once again to the school Spadefish who hadn’t left their post since the last time we came through. After climbing back into the boat we headed back to the resort.

Lunch that day was a Pan-Fried Fish Salad. We planned another dive though the tide was quickly slipping out, so we chose something chill & local, “The Pond” again.

Returning to “The Pond” I had the same damn mask problems that plagued me at “Turtle Head" the day before. I made the best of it & cruised around “The Pond” with my dive buddies taking in the site.

I felt so bad because Elaine at one point motioned to me something that I thought was “Pillow Starfish.” Sleepy hands by her head & an explosion with her hands. She meant sleeping Pufferfish. So here I came, barreling over the reef, completely oblivious to the need to be sneaky & I scared it away. Thankfully we encountered another sleeping Pufferfish later on in the dive that I was wiser to not awaken.

It was Curry Night when we returned, something I & a few others in the group were beyond psyched for. Despite many grumbles from the group at large everyone seemed to at the very least remain fairly respectful & at least ate a large portion of the provided food. No one, to my knowledge, turned away the dish or asked for something else. The curry was wonderful too! Chicken Tikka Masala, Fijian Roti, Yellow Lentil Daal, & a Salted Caramel Pavlova for dessert!

I spent the rest of the evening combing through my shark dive footage, of which there was a lot, & compiling it into my vlog. It was another midnight with a 6 AM wake up call for me just to get it finished.


End Of Day Five



Day Six



Another late night of editing, another early morning to finish, Thursday we did actually get to sleep in a tad so what had become my normal 6 AM wake up & edit session was now able to be delayed an hour. After editing I went down for breakfast where I had Yaloka Niviti waiting for me. Yaloka Niviti is a Fijian breakfast dish consisting of eggs, black beans, feta, avocado, & chili sauce all wrapped in Roti, sort of like a breakfast quesadilla I suppose.

Our dive call was a little later than normal partially because of the tides for the day, partially because the sites we were hitting were all local. The first of which was “The Aquarium,” a dive the other boat did at the beginning of the week & raved about.

I understand why the other group raved about “The Aquarium” it is teeming with life both of the coral & animal variety. The site sits on the outer reef wall of Beqa Lagoon & is in the shape of a more front heavy curve. The corals there fluoresce with bold neon oranges, acid greens, highlighter yellows, & bright turquoise blues. The reef is covered in several intriguing mollusk species; Black & White Spotted Nudibranchs & even a Common Egg Cowry munching away on a leather coral.

I saw my first wild Clown Tang here as well, though I only caught a glimpse of it from the corner of my eye before it ducked under a rock. I did my best to idol by where it hid in hopes that it would come out but it only popped its head out once & the Tomato Clownfish who I’d taken up station by were getting pissed that I was so close to their beloved anemone, which was an impressive one at that.

Before I’d gotten distracted by pursuing the Clown Tang I found a little Gray Moray Eel, far less boisterous than Sam’s the day before. I had shared it with the group at that point & moved on. Farther along the curve of the reef that jutted a bit more into open water we discovered a male & female Great Pacific Octopus. I actually didn’t see the female until I was looking at video later, even though she was pointed out to me over & over again. Camouflage is dope!

Our second dive of the day was equally as spectacular, “Mata Point.” Despite going over the dive plan & agreeing that we would all start the dive going west with the reef wall on our right side we all got in the water & immediately headed east. After about ten minutes of confusion we all got straightened out & headed in the right direction which unfortunately ate into our dive time making it so we never made it all the way to “Mata Point” as originally intended. The dive was still gorgeous though!

The reef wall basically goes in a straight line until it curves into the point (I assume). The coral species here displayed the same vibrance as their “Aquarium” counterparts & there were an abundance of Halloween Flatworms! At one point Jodi found a quant little Saddlebacked Pufferfish tucked into the reef & I found a rather large Anemone Crab attached to the underside of a large anemone.

At one point during the dive a group of around five or six of us began hearing the aggressive rattle of someone’s dive rattle. We hadn’t noticed the rest of the groups disappearance but we were with Sam & each of us had our own dive buddies, so we were all a tad confused. We took it as a recall signal & all made our way back along the wall amongst the sea fans & anemones.

We found the boat with Jodi waiting next to it underwater banging her tank with her pointing rod. Some of the group had been running out of air & she was trying to locate the remainder of us, who were with Sam, to pull the dive.

While we were in our safety stop above the reef I found my second Clown Tang & this time I got quite a deal more time with it! It basically circled me over & over, both curious & cautious. It would duck into crevices, hide, the jut out & swim to the next spot. But back into the boat & back to the resort we all went.

Lunch was a “Hangover Burger” served poolside which was topped with Onion Jam, Tomato, Bacon, Lettuce, Cheese, & a Fijian BBQ Sauce made at the resort. I enjoyed it there while catching a few rays & sipping my ritualistic post dive cup of tea.

Our afternoon dive was to be the last dive of the trip. We headed back out to do an exploratory dive, that simply means the dive is uncharted & the guides don’t know it's ins & outs. We knew at some point that the current would come in so we anticipated the drift. We were dropped at one end of the reef wall & Captain Dee was meant to meet us down the line. So was the plan…

The dive was outstanding, the corals especially. I stumbled upon a bed of deep blue anemones that played host to a whole colony of assorted Clownfish, a large cluster of Alveopora (flower coral), & mountains of leathers & maze corals.

It was then that we hit the wall. Not a literal wall, but a current wall. It came in hard & fast & halted any & all progress we were making down the reef. The decision was made to turn around & head back to where we had begun our dive in hopes that Dee would see the signs & the current shift & anticipate the new plan.

On our way back I was so mesmerized by the corals that I was almost completely run over by a large Hawksbill Sea Turtle. I ducked out of its way as well as I could in the water & waves & watched it go along its merry way on the top of the reef.

When it was time to surface I got put in charge of deploying our SMB or Safety Sausage from the depth of what would be our safety stop. We swam out to see til neither the reef nor the bottom were visible & I deployed to sausage up to the surface to signal Dee of where we all were.

DISCLAIMER: IF YOU ARE MY MOTHER OR FATHER PLEASE FEEL FREE TO SKIP THIS NEXT PARAGRAPH OR THREE!

We waited well past the three minutes prescribed for our safety stop all the while never hearing the ringing hum of the boat motor as it got closer, so we all cautiously surfaced. Dee hadn’t seen the bright yellow SMB, nor had he anticipated the change of plans. He still sat very far away at the other end of the reef facing the opposite direction. Our dive time was meant to be around forty-five minutes but the site ended up being deeper than we’d anticipate & we’d only been under for around thirty-five minutes or so. Naturally Dee hadn’t begun looking for us yet.

The winds & waves had picked up with the current though which easily drowned out the several whistles being blown. At around five minutes into our surface time we had all inflated SMBs & were waving them in the air in a futile effort to get his attention. Given different circumstances we honestly probably would have looked & sounded like a rave; different colored neon flashing in the air with whistles, rattles, & shouting.

It wasn’t until our allotted dive time was up that Dee began looking for us, which, after he turned around he quickly found us. By the time Dee picked us up we had drifted well away from our initial ascent spot & it had been about ten to fifteen minutes spent trying to make as much noise as we could.

Was it terrifying? Surprisingly no. We actually were having a pretty good time all things considered. I can’t speak to Jodi or Sam but I know the rest of us were rather enjoying the float. When we got on board of the dive boat again Jodi explained that a few months ago she had been the private dive guide to an elderly couple & the three of them had gotten swept out to sea. It took them around thirty to forty minutes to be found at which point Jodi had said she was starting to panic. All the while the elderly couple was laughing, taking pictures, having a blast. It must be the plight of the dive guide to fear for your clients.

I really wish I could remember the major highlights of the rest of the evening but I can’t seem to. I know we spent the time after we returned from the dive fresh water washing our gear & packing it all up from the storage spots we’d had all week, I know I sat & edited in the cabana by the pool, but I can’t for the life of me recall what was for dinner or what the rest of the evening looked like so I guess that’s all I have for you on day six. Kind of an anti-climactic ending I know.

End Of Day Six

Day Seven

With no more diving to do it was time to retrieve our gear. Well, that which we hadn’t already snagged the night before. This mostly consisted of BCDs, Regulators, & Wetsuits which had all been hung to dry over night in the dive shop. I packed up majority of my scuba gear but allowed my BCD & wetsuits more time to hang dry in the shower of my room.

Breakfast was the Full Fijian, a tropical twist on the Full British that I’m sure was a remnant of the colonizers. Yes it consisted of baked beans, cooked tomatoes, bacon, toast, eggs, etc but also came with the Fijian touch of fresh tropical fruits.

For those of you that were unaware, you aren’t supposed to dive less than 24 hours before a flight, that doesn’t mean we spent the day twiddling our thumbs or even dry for that matter.

Many of us had booked a day of River Tubing & Cultural Exploration.

Our van picked us up around 9 AM & we headed East through Pacific Harbor towards Suva. We stopped in Navua where we boarded long boats that took us up stream. Each long boat held around five people, captain & guide included & there were several times in which we had to vacate the longboat to trek along the shore because the water was too low to accommodate the weight of all of us.

About an hour up river we were escorted into a small village called Sabata. A village with around nine buildings, Sabata had joined up with the tubing company in a mutually beneficial partnership to show people how a lot of Fijians still lived. Our guide took us first to a home atop the hill where cassava was being cooked & palm was being stripped to make grass mats. He showed us the outdoor Fijian kitchen & then took us into the one room home.

The owner of the house graciously offered us some of his food, boiled cassava & then took a picture with us, showing us around his house. We then met the chief & the mayor of the town before being shown through their cassava & taro fields back to the longboat.

We ventured down the river in the long boat for about ten minutes before we pulled over & were escorted up a path, along a stream to a beautiful waterfall! The falls poured water into a dark pool below & it honestly reminded me a lot of the waterfall that Evan & I swam in back near Hona in Maui. I got into the water without hesitation, the rest of the group, not so much, even despite my reminding them “when is the next time you’re going to have a chance to swim in a beautiful waterfall in the middle of the rainforest in Fiji?”

After our guides cliff jumped into the waterfall it was time for lunch which was served in the Guava Grove back along the shore where we’d excited the river. Lunch was traditional Fijian. Kokodo (a Fijian Ceviche, Stewed Fern, Pineapple, Grilled Chicken Drumsticks, Salad, & a very spice heavy Sausage with White Bread were all on the plate.

I bothered one of the guides into picking us some fresh Guava which we joyously shared amongst the group.

After lunch it was time to tube. We got our safety briefing from Rosie, the owner, & we all clambered into our respective tubes before setting off down the river.

The guides had requested that we all try to link up, that way no one ran the risk of getting lost or left behind, & we were less likely to tip going through rapids.

Most of the river was a pleasure cruise, leisurely & calm. We hit rapids two or three times, the last of which was by far the largest. As someone who has whitewater rafter many a time in my life, I’ve got to say that going down some minor class rapids in an inner tube is a tad intimidating.

After we were through with all of the rapids the staff began singing to us. They sang traditional Fijian songs, Fijian church songs, & songs of farewell. We then climbed back into the long boats & headed back down to Navua where we got out, changed, & climbed back into the van to be taken back to Waidroka Bay.

Along the way we were all feeling snack-y, especially for ice cream, so we asked our driver to stop at a gas station or something comparable to get some treats. He took us to a newly opened Korean Supermarket. We were like kids in a damn candy store.

I have a massive sweet tooth, & candy is my weakness which, at that point, I hadn’t indulged in over a week. Poor me, I know. So I went HAM on the snack section of the grocery store. I got Sour Stripes, Gummy Colas, a Cadbury Fruit & Nut Bar, a Magnum Ice Cream Bar, a pre-mixed Bounty Rum & Cola, & a bag of Calbee Honey Butter Chips (a Korean fad food that I’d actually squeezed into a song a week or so prior)! All of this amounted to a grand total of around $12 USD. I guess it’s true, sugar is cheap.

When we returned I went back up to my room to begin packing & take a little bitty nap, being on the river all day in the sun really saps you.

Around sunset I made my evening cup of tea & went down to sit on the dock & watch the Fijian sunset one last time over the shallows. I was then brought up to the cabana by the pool for a Kava ceremony, complete with more Fijian Music!

Kava is a member of the pepper family. It is traditionally used socially as a drink to be shared. Kava actually has many beneficial medical properties & has been found to drastically reduce anxiety & stress. The Fijians say alcohol winds you up, Kava settles you down. In Fijian culture Kava is a social beverage brewed by hand in a large bowl called a Tanoa. The dried, ground Kava root is placed in a sack where it is kneaded into water before being dished out. Traditionally when handed a cup of Kava you are to say “Bula,” clap your hands once, shoot the contents of the cup, finishing it in one go, & then clap three more times.

I would describe the taste of Kava as reedy. If you ever played a woodwind instrument & had to suck on a reed before playing, it’s almost exactly that taste only a bit more peppery. The effects of Kava are interesting as well.

A lot of people in the western world equate Kava to Peyote or Ayahuasca but Kava is neither a stimulant nor is it psychoactive. It does kind of leave the roof of your mouth buzzing but it truly puts you in a state of deep calm & serene happiness. I drank four full cups of Kava that evening & probably would have loved more! It was a wonderful experience!

After the Kava ceremony & dancing around the cabana like fools we retreated for dinner. Much like lunch, dinner was also traditional Fijian, seeing as it was our last night in Fiji. Served buffet style we had Pan Seared Marlin, Taro, Cassava, Sweet Potato, Coconut Creamed Spinach, Kokodo, Topoi coated in Sweet Coconut Cream, Chicken, & Pork. After dinner the Resort staff came & sang to us before sending us off to bed.

Almost as soon as I got up the hill the power went out. We would later find out it was because a tree had fallen on a power line, but the whole bay was a deep black darkness, the moon being hidden behind clouds. The Fijians, who had never stopped singing even after we left, didn’t seem to mind the darkness & continued their deeply harmonized chorus into the winter night.

I noticed a pocket of stars poking through the clouds & sought to take advantage of probably the darkest place I’ll be in my lifetime. I turned my phone to high exposure & snapped pictures of the sky capturing stunning glimpses of the cosmos simply from an iPhone.

Power was partially restored as we switched to a generator & I drifted off to sleep not long after.

End Of Day Seven

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Travel Blog: Fiji: Part One-Beqa Lagoon

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Prologue

I started my trip to Fiji not in my normal Nashville place but instead in Los Angeles. The group I was going with, Midwest Aquatics, had booked out a group of tickets through Fiji Airways out of LAX so I went out about a week early to acclimate to the time change & get a bit of work done. It was good I went out early as I got to catch up with friends, had a few very productive meetings, & ended up having time to finish some coursework for specialty certifications I was getting as well as acquire the necessary equipment that I hadn’t realized I was lacking in my diver’s tool box. If you read my previous two blogs you’ll know that I was beyond excited for this trip to Fiji & could barely sit still in anticipation of its arrival, which, of course, it finally did! Shall we dig into it?


FIJI

PART ONE:


Day One

It’s a rather interesting experience flying across the international date line. We departed the US on our flight to Fiji at 11:55 PM PST on Thursday, July 14th, we then missed the entirety of Friday, July the 15th as, across the international date line where Fiji lies, it was already Saturday, the 16th. A very off experience to miss a day in its entirety. We all ended up not receiving the seats we had called & requested, each of us having spent about an hour on hold with Fiji Airways listening to the same song on repeat over & over, but they had bunched our group into the same couple handfuls of rows, so the awkwardness of sleeping next to a stranger on a red eye was eased. I was placed next to Roland in a middle seat though, much to our excitement, our aisle ticket holder never showed & I happily got to shift over, leaving the middle space blank for both of us to pile on items we wanted within reach & commandeer the absentee’s leg room.

I barely slept on the ride out. Call it nerves or simply sheer lack of comfort, but for whatever reason it evaded me. I think max I got three to four hours out of our eleven hour flight, all the while fading in & out of music & movies I’d downloaded to my iPad.

We arrived in Fiji before the sun around 5:45 am. Greeted by the upside down moon & a large line at customs we slowly made our way to the transport, collecting luggage & exchanged currency along the way. I was the last to make it onto the transport van having sought out coffee & an atm while everyone else in my group had gone through the exchange.

Once we were all crammed into the van we began our two-ish hour trek from Nadi to Waidroka Bay Resort. Along the way & towards the beginning of this ride our driver drove us by the gorgeous Sri Siva Subramaniya Swami Temple & explained that nearly one third of the Fijian population is that of Indian decent whose ancestors had been brought in by the British to farm sugar cane. Formerly going by Indo Fijians, the newest Fijian President, Wiliame Katonivere, had recently declared all “Indo Fijians” as simply Fijians in an attempt to neutralized divisive language amongst his people.

Around an hour further down the road we passed through out driver’s home town, a small fishing village on the southwest coast of the island, before making our way to Vatukarasa to stop at Baravi Handicrafts & Cafe for a stretch break & a little sustenance.

Baravi is an interesting duck of a place. Majority of the store is a gift shop specializing in goods made by Fijians most for tourists; lali, carved masks, tanoa fai’ava, apparel, jewelry, ornate paddled & clubs, etc. Then tucked opposite, in the front corner of the store with a window to walk up from the outside is the cafe portion. I ordered two hand pies, butter chicken & paneer & corn, under the presumed assumption we wouldn’t linger long in addition to an iced coffee, served blended, & a bottle of sparkling coconut/pineapple drink. The hand pies were out of this world incredible! The crust was flaky & the filling was moist & rich. I definitely think I preferred the butter chicken one but maybe that’s just the white boy in me talking.

We lingered a little longer at our stop than I think we all had anticipated. Across the street a small village had set up food stalls of their own to compete with the cafe. They sold fresh fruit & boiled corn, though I got the vibe the menu changed seasonally based on availability. We all loaded back up in the van & headed onward to Waidroka.

Waidroka Bay Resort sits on the other side of a small coastal mountain range, something a van full of twenty three people might struggle to reach from time to time & though the main highways in Fiji are paved, the singular road going in & out of the bay was not. The radio station our driver had selected was an eclectic one for sure, playing anything from southern gospel to country to modern pop & 80s hits. The irony of Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” was not lost on any of us as the van struggled to crest the mountain, we truly thought at a few different points we’d need to get out & push.

Finally on our decent we bobbled our way down into the resort where we were greeted by the two Scottish managers. They informed us all that our rooms weren't quite ready & that the group before us was still yet to leave but that we should hang out, place our lunch orders, & they would take care of our baggage & seeing it o our proper rooms in due time. I ordered the “catch of the day” before making my way down to the ocean, shocker, I know.

The tide had gone out during out voyage so silty mangrove shores stretched out for hundreds of yards past the etched coast line. Tide pools & fading estuaries dotted the terrain from the dock where the dive boats where now run a ground to the edge of the reef, far out past the exposed sand bed. The pools were teeming with life & one of the first things I came upon was a lagoon triggerfish trapped in water only about two inches or so deep. I asked Darin & Elaine if I should move it to the channel about fifty feet away seeing as I have experience handling live fish having managed reef tanks most of my adult life but the consensus was that the tide was returning & the porcelain bodied, strikingly painted fish would soon be able to return to sea. So off we all went in our separate directions to explore further pools.

Despite the numerous damsels, gobies, sea cucumbers, clams, corals, & starfish I came across I couldn’t shake the trigger & intuition got the best of me, which I’m glad it did. See the clouds had dissipated & while, yes the tide was returning, so too had the sun which had begun to dry out the innumerable tidal pools. About twenty minutes or so after our initial encounter I made my way back to where I believed the triggerfish to be & found it now sideways laying the same pool, now only about an inch deep. I decided to move it. Grasping the fish firmly, but delicately, holding it so that my index finger maintained its “trigger” I lifted the fish from its rapidly evaporating refuge & took it tide pool by tide pool all the way back to the channel. The trigger lingered a little when I placed it back in open water before darting out through the channel. I then made my way back through the muck to the resort for lunch.

After washing my feet I sat down to dine. The catch was Marlin, pan seared, sat atop a bed of fresh Fries, served with Fiji Lime & Tartar. It was delicious! I was then escorted up to my room, a sixty-four step climb back up the hill where room fifteen met me at the far end of a line of motel style rooms that shared a common porch/walkway. The view from my room was outstanding & it overlooked the entirety of the bay! I sorted my baggage & put my clothes in the wardrobe before collecting my dive bag & heading down to meet Jodi, our dive guide, with it all.

We had been sorted into two separate boats, that with those requiring special access for entry & exit of the water went on the Explorer with James, Jodi’s husband & fellow resort dive guide. I was placed on the other with Jodi as the ladder was a bit wobblier & we a few of us had specific tasks to complete for our different specialty certifications we were getting on the trip. Each boat was issued a briefing time & told to bring our BCDs (Buoyancy Compensator Device) & Regulators down for the staff to have set up & ready to go in the morning when we departed on our first dives. After our check-in & getting all of my gear situated I climbed back up to my room for a little jet lag nap before dinner.

I tried to keep my nap brief as I still wanted to sleep that night & in spite of my body begging me just to succumb to the slumber I managed to get up! Not feeling entirely social & in a state of calm I returned to the shoreline, where the tide had returned, & meditated atop a large chunk of lava rock next to an overturned palm tree. I exited my meditation to the sounds of fish catching insects in the shallows & found a large colony of fiddler crabs had emerged from the sand to wave their dominant claws at one another.

The Lali for dinner was beat & I returned to the main part of the resort to be met with a dinner of Stuffed Chicken with Cassava, Veggies Samosas, & Chocolate Donuts before pushing my way into my room barely able to keep my eyes open. I think I ended up falling asleep around eight or nine that evening.


End Of Day One






Day Two

I woke up on day two fair early. My body naturally said “time to go” around 6:30 AM Fiji time which is 1:30 PM Central US, hence why my body said “enough of this, up we go!” The kitchen didn’t open until around 7 AM for breakfast so I sleepily shuffled around my room collecting things I would need for the day for that thirty minutes time. The weather was a touch on the rainy side, which I’d come to learn if often far more common than sun in Fiji, but that didn’t me from stopping to take some pictures of the local Syngonium species growing in the run off ditch at the bottom of the hill.

The breakfast I had requested was Topoi, a local Fijian dumpling. The way breakfast & lunch worked at the resort was that the night prior you’d be handed a menu & prompted to choose your breakfast the next day right after finishing your three course dinner. The same went for lunch only you were asked to put in your order after finishing up your breakfast. Back to Topoi. Served with sliced fruit & a small ramekin of peanut butter, topoi is a dumpling made of Cassava & Coconut. It is similar in taste & texture to that of the southern American varietal of drop biscuits found in Chicken & Dumplings. The reason I chose this breakfast is simple. Why go somewhere you’ve never been to eat the same things you eat every day? In addition to choosing the dumplings simply out of curiosity I also got them somewhat at the behest of Elaine, my instructor & dive buddy for the week, who chooses Banana Pancakes on the days she dives especially if the distance required to travel to the dive site is farther by boat than normal. The reason? In addition to being a great source of carbohydrates, something you need when diving, bananas taste the same going either direction…

Our call time wasn't til 9 so we all sat around the table telling stories until it was time to go. It was a late start simply because the weather was up in the air. Jodi had decided to take us to a dive site called “The Pond.” She’d chosen this site for a number of reasons.

  1. It was inside the reef & thus offered protection from the swells & winds the storm had brought in, literally making a bowl shaped, mostly sandy, retreat on the other side.

  2. Some of us were working on Low Visibility & Night Dive Specialty Certifications, it would be murkier with the weather & thus qualify.

  3. It’s a nice introductory dive to get reacclimatized to diving after having spent a whole days worth of time in travel mode.

I have to admit I got a little bit of FOMO when our dive site was announced because the other group was headed deeper into Beqa Lagoon. However, the weather said otherwise & the other boat ended up diving “The Aquarium,” a dive we would hit towards the end of the week.

“The Pond,” in addition to providing a respite for us, also offered one for the aquatic life around the lagoon, typically playing host to White Tip Reef Sharks, Sea Turtles, Breeding Chromis & Damsels in addition to Dogfaced Pufferfish. The only of the three we ended up seeing that day were the latter. As I said, “The Pond” is a bowl tucked on the inside of the reef wall, its sandy slopes are covered in boulders that host colonies of Lettuce Coral & Birds Nest. These then play host to the mating fish of the reef & hide Green Chromis & Domino Damsels all throughout their overlapping structures.

We ended up diving “The Pond” twice that day as the weather prevented us from going out onto the other side of the reef. During those two dives we saw a Great Pacific Octopus, a Maculiceps Tang, a ton of Scopas Tangs, several species of Butterflyfish, the only Goniopora Coral I saw all week, a Halfmoon Triggerfish, & the sites resident Sewing Machine (mark that as the weirdest thing I’ve ever found on the bottom of the ocean).

We headed back to the resort ahead of the weather & just in time for lunch. I took my lunch poolside & got a cup of Pumpkin & Coconut Soup with a Ham Melt Sandwich. During my time by the pool in the little sunshine we had that day I managed to befriend a rather curious little female Jumping Spider. She came & sat on my knee looking up at me before I’d scoot her into my hand & set her on the ground next to me just for her to come back over & over again, so I decided to let her stay & we enjoyed our lunch in the sun together.

Naptime rolled around with the rain. Our third dive was called off & up the hill I went to crash for a bit of time & start editing the GoPro footage I had accumulated over the day.

After my nap I decided I’d be a little more social, so I returned to the main lobby/dining hall of the resort. There I was met by Elaine, Billy (one of the Fijians working there), & Kai (the owner’s daughter). Elaine & Billy were in the process of teaching Kai how to bartend as she would soon have to be the one to do it in a few of the staff’s absence in the coming months. Elaine was writing out a list of basic drinks & recipes as she’d at one point owned a bar & we all got to be the guinea pigs for Kia’s bartending experience. I got handed a blended Papaya Daiquiri which was refreshing & light before then being passed a drink Elaine & Kai had come up with called a “Safety Stop,” a fruity rum drink with a cherry floater halfway submerged. If you’re a diver you already get the joke, if not allow me to explain (divers may skip ahead to next paragraph). A safety stop is a 3-5 minute hold spent around 15 feet below the surface. The purpose of the safety stop is to allow your body to expel some of the nitrogen that has been forced into your body due to increased pressure. It helps prevent decompression sickness a.k.a the bends.

After a dinner of Veggie Tempura, Pan Fried Marlin, & assorted fruits alongside a Rum Negroni, it was time for bed. I wrapped up my editing, posted my travel vlog video, & was out before the clock struck nine.


End Of Day Two





Day Three

Now entering Monday, I was awoken around 6:30 AM once again, this time by the sound of a screeching Masked Parrot perched atop a tree just off the side of the hill. The sun had risen & the rain had cleared so I made my way down to breakfast. My meal that morning was Muesli, a dish that I had been introduced to in the past by my former manager. The Muesli at Waidroka was less of an overnight oat & more of a cereal with a plethora of topping. Yogurt, honey, bananas, raisins, papaya, etc. It was amazing & quite filling though I think I owe part of my fullness to the endless supply of tank bread (fruit bread in the shape of a tank) that came with each breakfast.

Our dives were at “Pipes,” just off shore from the reef wall. “Pipes” in addition to being a great dive site, is also a rather attractive surfing stop, in fact that’s where it received its name. To us it was appealing not only for the abundance of corals & sea life, but also because Dave, my other dive buddy, & I needed to get down below 100 ft for our deep diving certification.

Upon our initial entry into the water I became immediately overwhelmed. Not anxious or panicky, but aghast at the amount & diversity of the corals that lay below me. “Pipes” was truly a spectacle & I couldn’t help but smile for at least the first 10-20 minutes of the dive.

We pretty quickly got to work plummeting down into the deep. Elaine, Dave, & for some reason Darin, Deb, & I all made our way over the drop off & down into the deep reaching around 108 ft. before beginning our slow ascent back up to the main part of the reef. I think Deb & Darin were simply following us, not because they were after the certification, lord knows Darin most likely already has it being a dive shop owner, but because they thought we were following the rest of our group. In any case, Deb was now just lacking the coursework to check off her Deep Dive certification.

At “Pipes” I found a gorgeous bubble tip anemone in addition to the only Powder Brown Tang I saw the whole trip, which just happened to be at depth! The reef teemed with life from Moorish Idols to Regal & Lemonpeel Angelfish to Firefish & Leopard Wrasse.

We dove “Pipes” twice before heading in to shore for lunch. During our surface intervals we sat drinking coffee, eating muffins, cookies, & apples, watching the surfers take in the surface enjoyment through a light drizzly rain that made way for a magnificent rainbow.

On our second dive we crossed the 80 ft requirement for the Deep Diving cert. Deb joined once again. I contributed to my daily bit of ocean conservation when I pulled a busted size 11 flip flop from the sand that a massive sea cucumber was attempting to eat. We also found a shining example of bubble coral nestled just opposite of a huge saddle anemone.

My lunch that day was a Fish Wrap served with a side of Island Slaw, a very cucumber heavy dish. No spider accompanied my mean but there was a rather large moth outside the dive shop when we initially returned. I also began my daily practice of post dive tea time; English Breakfast with a spoonful of sugar & a splash of milk. Really warms the bones from the chilly deep.

We were given the go ahead to trek out for another dive which we decided would be a return to “Pipes” only this time we would drift dive the portion that is normally surfed & end up tucked away from the current where we originally began. This is where we spotted our first Turtle of the trip! Off swimming in the current, lazily bobbing along, a turtle! Unfortunately the afternoon churn & our distance from it kept me from getting a good video/picture but it is there if you go back & watch the day three video from my TikTok or Instagram!

In addition to the turtle the wall was covered in beautify Zoanthid polyps & teaming with larger reef fish like Grouper, Snapper, & Squirrel Fish.

Dinner was Coconut & Pumpkin Soup with a Marinated Pork Chop & Ice Cream for dessert. I sat a few long, extra hours at the table editing video for the daily vlog before I began the sixty-four step climb to my room.

The frogs were out that night, massive tree frogs that came out to bask in the warmth of the concrete all while attempting to attract a mate.

I’m pretty sure I stayed up rather late editing, going to bed around Midnight instead of 9 or 10 PM.

End Of Day Three







Day Four

Tuesday started a little groggier than the previous. With more dive footage came more required for combing through hours worth of footage to find several one to three second blurbs to fit into my vlogs. I’m not complaining though, I’m beyond happy with how my vlogs turned out!

It was a clear day that we started earlier than normal because we were off to dive Beqa Lagoon proper! I started my day once again with Topoi as we had to brave the choppiness of the Beqa Passage between the main island of Fiji & Yanuca Island on the western edge of Beqa Lagoon.

As I said, the morning was a much quicker one, the wind was due to pick up in the afternoon making the Passage more & more difficult to navigate in our small dive boats, so our call time sat just on the other side of breakfast, the staff even arriving thirty minutes earlier to accommodate us.

Our first dive in the lagoon was called “Pinnacles” so named because of the labyrinth of pinnacle rock formations jutting up from the sand below which now house millions of individual plant, fish, coral, & invertebrate species.

Upon entering the water we were immediately greeted by a curious Remora. For those of you that don’t know, a remora is a fish with a sucker on the top of its head that attaches to larger pelagic aquatic animals such as whales, turtles, sharks, & manta rays. Seeing a remora is usually a sign that something big is swimming near by unless, as this one was trying to do, they see you as the bigger aquatic life & attempt to suction onto you for a ride, something I’ve heard is far from fun.

The Remora quickly lost interest in us & we began our dive. Wrapping around the first pinnacle we found an abundance of Sea Fans & Whips, Christmas Tree Worms Basket Starfish, & two massive Clown Triggerfish. We wove in & our of the different Pinnacles throughout the dive though I stayed around 5-8 feet above everyone else, my left ear failing to equalize the the pressure below that depth.

When it was time for the group to make our safety stop we were moved to the top of one of the largest pinnacles. The abundance of life just atop the large, looming tower was extraordinary. Hard corals abounded with damsels darting in & out of their folds, Male Lyre-tail Anthias flashing their displays, fighting over territory & harams of females, & the current swinging us all violently to & fro, now entirely unprotected by the walls below.

We took the opportunity of our surface interval to dip out of the wash & into calmer waters. We pulled over to the abandoned surf camp on Yanuca & claimed it as harbor while we sat around sun bathing & eating our carb heavy snacks. I took the time to tend to my clearly clogged sinus in preparation & hope that it would clear for the next dive ahead. My efforts were fruitful!

The original plan for dive number two of the day was to do a site called “Three Nuns” as the three massive pinnacles there resembled, you guessed it, three nuns. About halfway out the Fijians called it though & diverted to “Turtle Head” a dive site not as close to the passage where winds & waves had picked up exponentially.

“Turtle Head” is so called because one of the large pinnacle towers there jets out into the water reminiscent of a Hawks-Bill Sea Turtle. I personally didn’t see the turtle head during the dive, maybe it was because I was distracted by the incredible life found there but was definitely also partially to do with the fact that I spent the whole dive fighting my mask which had taken up the hobby of fogging during our surface interval. Well, that & the waves had kicked up quite a deal of sediment. None of that to say that the dive was a bust however, far from it.

In spite of the rather constant annoyance my mask was generating & the face I had to fill & clear it almost forty-five seconds, the dive was still incredible. We found several very large Porcupine Pufferfish, another Octopus, & a Trumpetfish, in addition to all of the coral & fish dotting the reef & its many tunnels that would have made great swim throughs if not for the fragile nature of the sea fans inhabiting them.

The top of the “Turtle Head” pinnacle was even more teeming with life though so too was the surge. It was truly a fight getting back into the boat even despite having the mooring line to hold tight too while being slung back & forth across the reef.

Lunch was Teriyaki Chicken Fried Rice served from the beach of the old surf camp. After paying a local $10 Fijian per person to a local islander we all climbed off the boat onto shore & gathered in the bar/mess hall of this now abandoned surfer camp, a location the island locals have helped to upkeep because it has since become a hot spot for dive boat lunches.

Another very popular surf spot, Frigates, is just off shore from the island, on the western edge of the Beqa Lagoon. Frigates is one of the top surf spot in the world, bringing people from all over to cruise its wave. This surf camp featured facilities for surfers to bunk in, running water, a full kitchen, etc. However, they decided at one point to stop paying rent to the locals who in turn kicked them out.

After lunch & failing to husk a coconut on the beach, I swam out to the boat for my mask. A beautiful reef say just off the shore & me being the fish I am, I had to explore it. This then gave Jodi an idea for our third dive. We would be doing a shore dive, starting just outside the little harbor & ending right before the shoreline. So I guess not technically a shore dive where you enter & exit from the shore.

This dive, which we named “Papaya Seed” because of the random swatches of papaya seeds all over the surf camp, was very reminiscent of my first ever dive in Maui with the exception that I think the water was a little more clear on this dive. The sparse reef was home to Massive Seacucumbers, Many a Cleaner Wrasse & their respective cleaning stations, Pillow Starfish, Queen Conches, Clams, Triggers, & Tangs & the dive ended up being a very relaxed, very quant one!

The journey back through the chop was a rough one & I was thrilled we ended up not being smack dab in the middle of it with “Three Nuns.” We were greeted back at the dive shop by the resort cat before I once again began the editing game for my vlogs.

The evening was meant to be a cultural night at the resort, of which I was unaware until one of the Fijian dancers, Sam Sam, came up behind me to fetch a spear from the building overlooking the harbor where I’d taken up residence with my post-dive tea & my iPad, just editing away.

The Fijians all circled up & sat by the pool bringing us all in to a group half circle to watch the festivities. They explained to us the dances & songs they’d be singing & then the party began. A group of young Fijian men rushed the “stage” they’d allotted & began their traditional dances. They ranged in age from early twenties to about eight to ten & the littlest ones constantly looked to their superiors for the next moves. After the dancing & singing we were moved to the main building of the resort where a line up of traditional Fijian foods awaited us.

I took way too much food & ate the lot of it which caused me to spend the duration of my evening editing very, very full. I ended up wrapping around midnight again but without finishing the video. I determined it would be better for me to wake up early the next day & finish which is precisely what I did.

End Of Day Four

END OF PART ONE

Blog: Pre-Ji (A Pre-Fiji Blog)

For those of you that don’t follow me on my socials I for starters am not sure how you even made it here, but welcome! Give this a read & go follow me on things! Back to the thought at hand. For those of you that don’t follow me on my socials I am heading to Fiji today! In fact, at the point in which this blog is posted, I will be halfway to Fiji!

Why am I going to Fiji you ask? I’m going on a dive trip! So naturally you can also expect there to be travel blogs the next two weeks! The dive trip I’m going on is through the school that I did my course work for my initial certification through in Kansas, Midwest Aquatics. I’m unfamiliar with the vast majority of people going on the trip with the exception of Kathy, who did my classroom study & pool dives, & Darin, the owner of the dive shop. The trip is a week long & includes fifteen pre-planned dives along with any I want to add in along the way. Part of my diving will be receiving my deep water certification, my night & limited visibility certification & the total number of log dives to secure my rank as an advanced open water diver! In addition I’ll have at least two night dives & a shark dive with a fourteen foot tiger shark named Princess!

In addition to the dives we will also have cultural nights with local Fijians, several excursions to different sites around the islands, in addition to beach hangs & anything else we desire doing. As I sit on my friend Jenna’s couch writing this I am only five hours away from hoping aboard the roughly eleven hour flight.

Why is this the blog topic? Why was last week’s blog topic about why I love to dive so much? To put it plainly, I’m very excited!

Fiji has always been a bucket list destination for me. The culture, the beaches, the marine life, the cuisine, all of it has intrigued me since I was very young & it feels like I’m checking off a very large life goal box by going on this trip.

I’ve gotten the question from a few people who I mentioned the trip to regarding the fact that I am traveling “alone” but I honestly don’t mind it. I feel I’m fairly decent at being able to make friends anywhere I go & as an introvert time spent in solitude, even socially isolated. I am someone who spends a lot of time in my head & I find my time in contemplation very comforting. It allows me to narrow in on my own feelings & thoughts I dive deeper into my understanding of who I am as a person. Part of why I love diving too.

I think I’m going to keep today’s blog fairly brief. If you want to keep up with this adventure I’m embarking on please feel free to follow me on either TikTok or Instagram where I’ll be posting daily vlogs in addition to the travel blogs I’ll be writing here over the next few weeks! If you’re someone who has been missing Object Writing, don’t fear, those will return after I return to Nashville!

Much love to you all! Next time you’ll hear from me will be an ocean away!

-C

Blog: Finding Peace At The Bottom Of Ocean

I just landed in Burbank an hour or two ago & now sit basking in the mid-80s summer sun, typing out this blog on an iPad, a practice in patience compared to my normal full keyboard laptop. The reason that I am sans laptop is because I have done my best to pack minimal luggage even though a part of my voyage, the current leg, is meant to be for work. My minimalist packing approach this go round is because the second leg of my trip is taking me to Fiji on a scuba diving excursion.

While still fairly green to the leisurely sport of scuba, it has become an instant fascination of mine, & something I seem to have a knack for. I’ve been certified for just over a year & some change & have logged around ten total dive, this coming week I’ll be adding around fifteen more to that total!

So why the blog about Scuba diving? Well, aside from it being on my brain (I spent last night checking all of my gear & packing it meticulously before spending the morning lugging it around airports & North Hollywood), I often get the same set of questions when conversation shifts to diving. So I figured I’d dive, pun intended, into the topic on here!

I’ve always claimed a saltwater soul, I say if I spend too long away from an ocean I start to dry out & in a lot of ways that rings true. When I’m away from the ocean I feel my muscles slowly tense, my bones ache, & my skin yearns for sun. I find my peace below the surface, drifting in the currents.

I’ve swam almost the entirety of my life & I’m rather good at it! I would also definitely say that I’m built like a swimmer, triangular body & all. I, much like many millennials, had a fascination with the ocean & thought I’d grow up into a Marine Biologist some day. I even looked at going to school in San Diego, Hawaii, or Corpus Cristi to study Marine Biology & Veterinary Science. Essentially I wanted Adam Sandler’s job from the film 50 First Dates. Naturally my life took a different course, as here I sit creative writing preparing for writing sessions & such.

I don’t know why it took me so long to get dive certified, it was always something I found myself envious of anytime anyone I knew would talk about dives they’d done. My certification came as a gift actually, a suggestion from my parents as a birthday gift for my 28th year. I immediately took to it.

I got the course work & pool dives done at the same time as my father in Kansas before getting my open water certification in Maui. After that I added a few more dives in Maui as well as a few in Puerto Rico.

The most common question that I seem to get from non-divers is “aren’t you scared?” In short, no.

I do have to admit, my first non-shore dive, my first boat dive, I was nervous, even apprehensive about plunging ‘blindly’ into the ocean below. I knew that there would be a great distance between my entry & any obstacles such as reef or the bottom but it was the slight fear of being completely ‘exposed,’ of not having the beach as a safety line or a convenient escape back to land.

Once I was in the water, 40 feet down, & fluttering along that fear quickly dissipated. Now anytime I step into the depths unknown waiting below I feel nothing but excitement! Why? Because in diving I have gone past the previous limits I had in satiating my saltwater soul & have found a peace that seeps deep into my soul.

The cool thing about scuba, the obvious things aside, is that it allows you a state of neutral buoyancy. It allows you to float suspended in the water & grants you a state of true weightlessness. In addition to the beautiful, untapped surroundings, you now essentially get to experience the most basic feeling of aquatic life. Your plain of orientation is no longer limited to where your feet & gravity allow, you are free to truly navigate three dimensional space unrestrained.

The next great fear of folks seems to be that of the wildlife, mostly where sharks are concerned. There’s a term I’ve picked up on in my limited time diving that I hear circling around from time to time. Sea Puppies. That’s what some people who spend a lot of time diving or doing ocean related research have nicknamed sharks. You see you are more likely to die by being attacked by a cow or are more likely to be struck by lightning then you are to be bitten by a shark. Not killed, bitten.

Are sharks apex predators? Yes. Should they be respected as such? Absolutely. But just because you respect something doesn’t mean you need to fear it, just know the signs & be respectful of the animals & you’ll be more than fine!

The only fear that has crept into my mind where diving is concerned is that of the unknown. I have yet to do a dive where I cannot see the bottom, I have yet to do a dive at night & if I’m being honest, both of these scenarios frighten me, but much like my first step off the boat into deeper water, I know once I’ve checked the box it will no longer be a fear of mine.

This is something I’ve tried to adapt to my life of late. I’ve written on the topic a few times now but my friend Stephen Lovegrove always says “if it terrifies you, it’s probably the right step.” So take the step. Step off the boat into the open ocean, because often times unexplainable peace & serenity await you on the other side!

So something this week that scares you but that you know is the right step, I believe in you!

Let’s me know what that step ends up being for you & as always, much love to you all!

-C

Blog: Just Another Late Night

On a chilly November Wednesday evening, back in 2017, gathered around my kitchen table with Evan Michael & Kate Cosentino was where “Just Another Late Night” was originally conceptualized. The title had been a note in my phone for even longer & for whatever reason the timing was right for this midweek write. Back in 2017 Kate, Evan, Kimi Most, & I used to do weekly Wednesday night writes. This song came out of one of those sessions as well as Kimi’s “Happy Birthday To Me," a song called “Dumb Drunk Self” that I still desperately hope Kate cuts, & innumerable other songs that we each have sitting on the shelf waiting for the timing to be right on their potential tracking. Given that she is not credited on this song, Kimi was obviously not a part of this particular week’s write for whatever reason so it became a collaboration between the three of us.

I remember writing down the title in my notes as almost exactly how it ended up “I need someone that will love me right, not just another late night.” To me the song sparks a memory from the early 2010s but for whatever reason I still hadn't found that “someone who would love me right.” Naturally it had been a while since any of the events in the memory had taken place but I still felt deeply attached to the idea & the song kind of poured out of us in the session.

From there the song became a staple in my set, I’ve been playing it in live settings ever since that night in 2017. I played it so much & so often that people who came to a lot of my sets began to know the words & I would get asked over & over when I planned to release it but for whatever reason it just kept getting pushed down the “to record” list. Cue 2020/2021.

I had just put out the acoustic mix of “Obliterated” & had gone in to record another song that is as of yet, still to be released. We wrapped the song & I felt I needed to put out something with a little more movement, enter “Just Another Late Night.” Going back in studio with Josh Gleave, we set out to finally bringing “Just Another Late Night” to life.

I wanted “Just Another Late Night” to feel almost like two separate songs because in the song, much like in life, we have moments of waining clarity. The verses act as the “quiet before the storm” that is each encounter the chorus brings. The verses are much more reserved allowing more space for the clock & hours to tick by in reflection. The chorus is cacophonous, it’s rambunctious & wild. It’s unhinged & without hesitation. Then we come to the bridge. The bridge to me is the “eye of the hurricane” it’s nothing but vocal & percussion that features a begging ultimatum from the narrator of the story. I wanted the song to reflect life, to have those moments of clarity that we all reflect on after & before the fact before we ultimately buy into the thing that’s destroying us one more time.

We’re now a week int the release of this song that we poured so much love & life into & I’m floored by the response I’ve had for it! Many blogs, playlists, websites, have all reached out asking to feature it. So many people have shared & as of this second we are sitting around 25,000 streams on Spotify!

I’d like to thank any & all of you who were a part of this song:

Evan Michael & Kate Cosentino for helping to write it!

Joshua Gleave for producing & dealing with my crazy artist ideas in addition to bass, keys, synth, & program instruments!

Lester Estelle Jr. for lending his mad drum skills!

Cole Phillips for crushing the guitar!

Jonathan Roye for mixing it so perfectly!

Mike Monseur for mastering!

&

OneRPM for distribution!

If you haven’t streamed or purchased “Just Another Late Night” I’ll drop the link to it here:

As always, thank you for reading! Thank you for allowing me to do the art that I love & be the artist I am!

I’d also love to know your thoughts on the song & how it relates to you personally, so feel free to leave a comment below!

Much love to you all!

-C

Object Writing: Polaroid

We’re born into this world like a freshly snapped Polaroid; the image of who we are & what we contain takes time to develop. Sometimes, as this is happening, whether out of love or selfishness, people will try to point out our details to us, to guess or shape the image even as its still sits lost to obscurity. We, ourselves, often end up covering certain parts of the image as we violently shake to clear up the picture into what we hope it will be. We grip more & more tightly, pressing our fingers into the swirling black, preventing pivotal parts of our picture from developing properly. But lessons take time, nobody perfects life over night, especially if those lessons contain the parts of our beautifully composed photo that we’ve spent the longest amounts of time with our thumb pressed over.

Object Writing: Just Another Late Night

Reckless, we might’ve been. we were fearless, cause back then we didn’t care that we would be growing older, playing with aches & age, maybe time made us bolder & young love can’t help but fade away. But still you end up at my place every, single time. You’re always coming back my way when no one’ll hold you tight. I still save space for you, though I should make room for someone that’ll love me right, not just another late night. Tired, but I could sleep, you’re leaving me wired cause trying to keep a handle on the way that you need to use me. God, I must be insane. Somehow you phase right though the walls that I think I’ve made. But still you end up at my place every, single time. You’re always coming back my way when no one’ll hold you tight. I still save space for you, though I should make room for someone that’ll love me right, not just another late night. Please leave the keys with me next time you run cause I need to close the door on us. But still you’ll end up at my place every, single time. You’re always coming back my way when no one’ll hold you tight. I still save space for you, though I should make room for someone that’ll love me right, not just another late night.

Blog: No Hate Like Christian Love

Hold up, hold up, hold up. I know a few of you have read that title & immediately gone into defensive mode & have a paragraph long comment ready, but how about we hear what I’m trying to say first? I think it’s also worth noting for the assumed bias of this blog that I myself identify as Christian, though I am far beyond the point of disillusionment with the church at this point & if we’re being honest so are a lot of people these days.

America has seen a drastic drop in new christians or individuals attending churches in the last few decades but for the life of a lot of the religious leaders they can’t seem to figure out why. They blame it on the media, they blame it on culture, on politicians, on x, y, z, but never seem to want to look internally. You see, so many of us who no longer find ourselves as congregational regulars grew up in churches; we grew up going to Sunday school & vacation bible school & lived through all of the “keep the Christ in Christmas” ish & those who remain in the hallowed halls don’t seem to understand why we don’t want to go back or actively attend those churches any longer. The answer is a simple one, we learned about Jesus, his way, his light, & we didn’t see his teachings being implemented, practiced, or reflected by those within the church, so we left. Truly I say unto you the most Christ-like individuals I’ve even known have a strong distain for the church.

To put this all in perspective the statement in the title above has become one that I’ve seen expressed more & more frequently over the last few years, “no hate like christian love.” If you as someone who identifies as such don’t see that & immediately see the problem I hate to break it to you, but I think you’ve missed the point of your religion. Christianity has become so synonymous with hate, bigotry, white nationalism, fascism, misogyny, homophobia/transphobia, xenophobia, islamophobia, racism, etc. that the statement “no hate like christian love” rings true to very large groups of individuals. So much of our culture’s pain & modern reliance unfortunately owes itself to years & years of religious trauma & continued attempts at oppression.

In recent years the US political climate has become more & more divisive swinging aggressively more & more towards a fascist right. Those leading that charge are claiming to do so in the name of God, they say God is disappearing from a country that was never a theocracy & founded itself on the principles of religious freedom, meaning freedom from others forcing their religion views onto you, & want to bring America back into its “former greatness.” A “former greatness” that holds a lot of pain, suffering, & lack of rights for those who find themselves in minority groups. Tell me, where are the teachings of Jesus in that? The campaigns of these Christian Nationalists go entirely against the teachings of Christ. They actively shun & vilify the “foreigner,” the needy, the immigrant, the refugee, the less fortunate, the different, the other. They propose laws to limit rights of these individuals, they strip back protections in place that give these individuals a chance at having an equal life to them, & they do so all in the name of “christian love.”

Often there is a bubble created around a church community, a church home if you will. This is a place, in theory, meant to allow you to feel love unconditionally from your fellow christians, to have support systems in place that allow you to express your pains & burdens freely & get support while remaining unjudged. I have never felt more judged or more completely ostracized than by members of the church who often use their born again status as a means to justify their hatefulness when things don’t fit their preconceived mold. Now people are looking around & seeing a congregation that reflects one way of being, one style of life, often limited diversity from a nationality, race, sexuality, gender identity, & social class & finding it lacking. They see themselves & the world more represented in the faces of their peers & diversified friend groups than they do in the pews on any given Sunday.

The bubble also often acts as a safe haven for abusers. We all know, very effectively the crimes of the Catholic church, thanks to the journalists at Spotlight out of Boston, but this guard isn’t limited to the catholic church. I’ve heard innumerable stories regarding the handing of abuse within the church. Higher ups will make excuses for abusers & protect them at all costs instead of hearing out the side of the abused. They refuse to acknowledge the often ugly side of humanity & outwardly condemn these actions that overall harm the community at large & weaken the bonds of a church.

The complete & utter lack of critical thinking is also a major deterrent for those looking to join the church. So much of the counter culture that christians justify with the bible has either been altered completely for political agendas (see the RSV translation of 1946) or completely lacks historical context. There also happens to be a lot of picking & choosing which verses to follow & which to omit completely from the modern dichotomy because “things were different back then.” It’s blatant hypocrisy & when faced with facts alternative to the fiction they’ve painted in their heads or carried their whole lives they refuse to even consider the possibility of them no matter who it harms or what damage it does to their brothers & sisters in Christ or the world at large.

If we as Christians were truly following the ways of Christ we’d embrace those around us with open arms, celebrating what makes them different & unique. We’d help refugees & immigrants unconditionally. We wouldn’t hoard wealth & covet riches when so many are doing everything in their power just to have a scrap of food to eat. We’d lovingly take preventative measures to insure that our neighbors & those at higher risks can remain safe & disease free. We’d recognize the disconnect & disadvantages certain communities & minorities have systematically & do everything in our power to overturn them. We’d be voting for people who want to help the less fortunate, not ostracize them. We’d be embracing our children for who they are whole heartedly not kicking them out of our homes or shaming them. I personally believe that Christ would be disgusted by the modern church & those in attendance & clearly a growing majority feels the same way. I think we need to take "no hate like christian love” as a major red flag & find ways to correct course immediately, taking proactive measures to correct the damage done to those who are bearing the brunt of the “love.”

I hope this blog wasn’t too much of a rant or a finger wag, I also hope most of you made it through this. This world deserves better, the people in our communities deserve better. I know at the end of the day we’re all human but if the saying goes “they’ll know we are christians by our love” then it should be love people know christians by, not the over abundance of hate radiating from the steeples.

I hope you all have a great weekend,

As always, much love to you all!

-C

Object Writing: Cinnamon

The ancients said it contained good fortune, that it would whisk your dreams & abundance from their hidey holes & send them careening towards you, a cosmic hack to elevate your vibrations & magnetize your highest good. I can understand why, just the touch of its soft warm caress against my olfactory centers fills me with bubbling comfort & an unbridled sense of security. Each tightly wound spiral of toasty brown bark can't help but curve a smile onto your face. Each homey flush spreads the promise of sanctuary across the tongue. Believe in it what you will but there's no denying the reassuring hospitality cinnamon seeps into our daily lives.

Blog: Make A Wish, Take A Chance, Make A Change, & Breakaway

Earlier this week I received a message from my friend Jared at Country Music Allies. He’s putting on a few shows this week, CMA week, & was asking if I would be willing to host the one on Friday (today) in his place. My initial reaction was an honest one, I’ve never hosted an event before & truly don’t consider myself to be amongst the great public speakers of the world so I was hesitant. He insisted that I would make a great host & that all I would be doing is introducing & not so much M.C.ing, so I told him I’d take the night to think about it.

The more I weighed the idea of hosting in my mind, the more uncomfortable it made me. I felt I wouldn't know what to say or that I’d make a fool of myself, but then my mind proposed the question “so what?”

It’s a simple question really “so what?” It really clears the air of anxiety & hypotheticals & creates way for logic to step in. So what if I screw it up & make a fool of myself? The people performing are lovely humans, some of which I know fairly well, they’ll definitely show me some grace, as will the audience who I’m sure will be primarily compromised of those within the queer community, especially if I’m honest in voicing my discomfort. Truly there is nothing to fear in accepting this role. So I did.

I texted Jared the following morning to tell him that the idea of hosting the event made me uncomfortable as hell which probably meant that I should do it. So tonight I guess I’m hosting an event! Let’s hope that come next week we don’t end up with another blog in the same vein of how I epically failed my callback a couple of months back only subbing out the “callback” for “hosting position.”

Additionally, I’ve had a lot of content come up this week around songwriting that lives in the same vein of thought. A writer who I follow & respect dearly said she spent 10 years in the industry writing songs that felt “meh” like they were good songs but nothing she was writing was great or moving the needle. She said the moment I stopped restraining myself & my thoughts was the moment I started writing great music. Her recommendation was that if you want to write a great song about a scenario or relationship you have to be bare. Go into a notebook & write unrestrained, uncensored about the topic until you feel you’ve purged your feelings thoroughly, then, once that is done, go back & find the sentences that make you say “oh, that’s too much” or “I could never say that out loud” & put that in your song! Those are the lyrics that end up connecting deeply to an audience.

If you haven’t noticed the common thread here is taking chances. This has been a week full of chance taking for me & those around be doing the same. Last night, my friend Chris Housman premiered a new single of his called “The Bible Belt” something he was incredibly nervous to play in public because it talks about all the ways he’s still recovering from how he was beat with “the bible belt,” it received ravenous applause. I went downtown to try & convince people to pre-save my upcoming single in exchange for a keychain, basically dry soliciting, something that makes me very uncomfortable. I then, while I was walking around, ended up doing a “finish that line” karaoke thing that got me a few more followers as well!

The point is take chances! Do the thing that makes you uncomfortable, be bold & unafraid to muck it all up! Put yourself out there, the worst people can say is no…I guess aside from cussing you out. But what I seem to be finding is that if you are who you are, unapologetically, the right people will find you, the right people will hear what they need to hear, & you’ll go so much farther in life & be so much happier in the long run.

Keeping it brief today as, like I said above, it’s CMA week & it’s packed out for me!

If you’re in Nashville this weekend come find me! I play at The Bowery Vault tomorrow evening around 9PM & will probably just be around also!

I hope you have the most fantastic of weekends!

Be safe, much love to you all!

-C

Object Writing: Shaker

Into the sparkling stainless steel cylinder go the ingredients to my elixir. Juices, spirits, bitters, syrups, & liquors are all viable option, each diverting the path towards a different finished outcome with every ounce I pour into the potion brewing below. The fiery sting of alcohol ignites my nostrils as I topple in the base spirit, finishing off my pre-shake list of ingredients. I top the unmixed shaker off with ice pilfered from my freezer before caping it & violently shaking its contents to & fro. The tumbler grows colder & colder in my hands with each pass the drink makes in its vessel; the ice within being reduced to chips, the mixture no longer a series of separate items, now a combined refreshment to be enjoyed. I strain my libation out from its metal origin into a new, crystaline home, adding the simplest of garnishes before settling into the couch with my eloquently constructed nightcap.

Blog: Yet Another Blog About Why We Still Need Pride

The past few years anytime June has rolled around I’ve written blogs regarding why Pride Month is still a relevant & important thing. Each time I write this blog I hope it’ll be the last time I have to but each year it seems to be more & more in demand. If you are a frequent reader of these snapshots my brain dumps in the form of weekly blogs, as always thank you, but you may have also read a lot of what will be discussed going forward in this blog regarding the state of LGBTQIA+ politics.

A few months ago I wrote a blog about the egregious, slimy, blatantly trans & homophobic attacks legislators are attempting &/or succeeding to legalize around the US. I guess a bit of this will be an update on all of that in addition to the new wave.

Unfortunately the “Don’t Say Gay” bill passed in the state of Florida. The DeSantis imposed law restricts & even outright bans the mere mention of anything remotely LGBTQ in Florida public schools. That includes teachers discussing their same sex partner or spouse, the same sex parents of one of their students, etc. It creates a dangerous lack of support around same sex education & limits the scope to which so many important figures in history achieved greatness in spite of the odds. It perpetuates the stigma of those members of the LGBTQIA+ community being “other” & is harmful not only to those students that identify as such & feel they can’t be themselves openly around their peers as well as the already systematically intrenched cast divides of this country. Fortunately the part of the bill requiring teachers to report any LGBTQIA identifying students did not pass & I have a hard time believing the bill will stand in light of the massive walkouts, speeches, etc. being executed by those whose schools have been affected.

In addition to Florida’s BS there’s also Texas’s that we need to discuss.

Governor Abbot’s attacks seem to have the trans community at the heart of his hatred. Over the last year he has tried to make it a crime for parents to support their trans children labeling it as child abuse & has been sending out Child Protective Services to investigate any & all claims of parents outwardly embracing their child’s identity. Luckily this executive order is currently on hold due to a federal court case blocking the order. That hasn’t stopped Abbott though who earlier this week made it legal for healthcare workers in Texas to refuse treatment to trans individuals.

On top of that, on the federal level we need to talk about Roe v. Wade.

Whether you stand on the 30% side who want to ban abortion or the 70% who don’t is not that aspect of Roe we need to discuss today. Roe v Wade was a case won on the grounds of privacy just like Griswold v Connecticut (right to contraception), Loving v Virginia (right to interracial marriage), Lawrence v Texas (banning of sodomy laws), & Obergefell v Hodges (right to same sex marriage). Each one of these cases stands as the law of the land because the losing party infringed upon the privacy of private citizens in their own homes. Let’s just look at those last two shall we Lawrence & Obergefell. Each of these specifically targets the LGBTQ community. If over turned they would effectively leave the rights of those individuals up to states, there would be an overnight witch hunt for those opposing to turn in their LGBTQ neighbors. I also understand that, in this case, all of this is hypothetical & you may be sitting on the other side of your computer, device, whatever, saying “oh, they’d never overturn those” but each of the Supreme Court Justices who are siding with the overturning of Roe v Wade said they had no intention of touching Roe in their confirmation hearings as well. Every. Single. One. Which is an impeachable discussion for another time.

What is my point in all this? My point is that there is still a long, long way to go. This country has a long, long way to go before those members of the LGBTQIA+ community have the same God given rights & treatments as their CIS/Het peers. That’s not even mentioning the atrocities exhibited outside the US towards members of the community.

I also don’t mean to be a downer, Pride is meant to be a celebration of who you are & what makes you special. It is a festival of love & acceptance & what it means to be human.

If you are a member of the community or an ally, I wish you all a Happy Pride Month! To everyone else, Happy Pride Month to you as well & ask that you take the time to get to know someone who identifies as LGBTQIA+, & I mean really get to know them. Come to the table with an open mind & heart & you may be surprised not only by what you learn about others but also about yourself. If you’re someone who uses the good book to harm or limit the rights of others you are no true christian nor do I believe that you’ve actually read your bible or know its history of alteration for personal & political gain.

I know tonight’s blog was a little on the heavier side content wise but I want you all to know I love you deeply just as you are & that you always have a friend & ally in me. Family doesn’t have to be restricted to the one you’re born into, there are people in this world who will embrace you whole heartedly & authentically, they’ll help you patch the pain & mend the heartache. You are absolutely as you were meant to be. You are loved, you are worthy, & you are enough.

Much love to you all,

-C

Object Writing: Fireflies

The mid-summer haze plants the seed of their terrestrial bound, celestial display. Lofted delicately into the air by humidity & paper thin wings they begin their musing spectacle of courtship. They paint ever shifting, continuously rearranging constellations upon the evening air, flashing their messages of availability & attraction, pining for those hidden in the vivacious green below. These fireflies are the first signal of summer; the first indicator that Ostara has ended her great, bounding resurrection & has passed her revitalized bounty off to Sol, lengthen the days & bleeding warmth into night. I’ve always been overjoyed by the presence of these, their comfort hangs in the air along side the heat of the day, enrobing me in a truly childlike sense of imagination & wanderlust. It’s my greatest pleasure to know them & an indescribable gift to witness their light.

Blog: The New American Dream

Earlier this week, after the horrific events in Texas & the egregious mishandling & lack of policy change that went along with it, a friend of mine posted a prompt on their story. They were asking any one of their followers to give any insight that they had on how to legally bow out of the United States. I can already feel some of you turning off after reading that but this is a genuine sentiment shared by much of those the Millennial & Gen Z age range. We feel this country is sliding further & further away from the ideals & policies we’d like to see in place & is being continuously run by outdated, out of touch politicians. Whether you agree with that statement or not is beside the point, it’s fact.

We live in a country where Millennials are still being forced to rent well into their thirties because the housing market is outlandishly high & wages are outlandishly low. We live in a country where people use seeking medical help is a very last resort & even then people would often rather suffer than go into outrageous medical debt. We are one of the only “first world” countries without Universal Healthcare, Paid Medical Leave, Paid Vacation Time, Proper Work/Life Balance, Comprehensive Gun Laws, Prioritized Free Education Systems, Etc. And those, especially in the older generations, who are happy with the state of things because it does them no harm, don’t understand how we can look at countries like The UK, Canada, Australia, Singapore, Japan, New Zealand, those in Scandinavia & majority of The EU, etc., & want for that.

So often the narrative in this country is that we are free, so so free, but free to what? The truth of the matter is that most Americans have no idea what true freedom is. True freedom is not the ability to do something, it is the ability to not have to worry about something. To not have to worry about choosing your health, their job, or going into debt, to not have to worry about getting shot in your school, place of worship, grocery store, etc., to not have to worry about being able to afford education that will propel you into jobs that aren’t soul sucking, to not worry if the next day some lobbied politician will strip your rights away, to not have to worry if your work will allow you time to still see your friends, family, maintain a social life, etc. True freedom is bliss, not ignorant bliss, but having systems in place that allow for their citizens to live, not just be cogs in the capitalist machine.

The new American dream has become that of Exodus. We want so badly to get out because we see that the storm is only getting worse along the horizon. We see how people live, truly live, in other countries & we envy that. I don’t profess to have the answers to the current American problems because they are innumerable from what I can see, I’m just here to inform, to recognize a common thread that I see becoming more & more apparent.

I, myself, have had this idea at the forefront of my brain. The impending & current doom of the states has me looking furiously for exits, seeing where I can be grandfathered into citizenship, who offers college programs, etc. Do I want to leave America? No, if I had a choice to stay & fix everything or leave I’d gladly pick the former but it’s becoming more & more apparent that we may have slipped far beyond repair.

You want to save this country? Stop electing self righteous, hateful nut jobs who are so out of touch with the people they represent & start electing people that care for the future of America, not its present.

I don’t want to have to leave this country but I fear that is where we are rapidly heading. I know a lot of you my age who are reading this feel the same & I wish I had an easy answer for you all, but I don’t. I think this November will be the deciding line for a lot of people with the threats against America’s established laws via privacy (Roe V. Wade, Oberfell V. Hodges, etc.), the fight to finally have some form of gun control, & the continued marginalization happening, I fear if this election season goes poorly the mass exodus will be in full swing.

I hope you have a great weekend & don’t weigh too heavily on all this, there is always a way out & always hope, keep pressing on.

-C

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