Heartbreak and Hope Ch. 11

Motorway= UK And Cornwall Islands term for the US 'Interstate Highway' though The Cornwall Islands version is more like the UK version with narrower medians.

Movie Max fictitious series: July Eighteenth is about an alien invasion with aliens that experiment on humans.

Revenant is a fictional series about a ghost that can possess people.

Bloody Omaha is a fictitious series about the US D-Day landings in June 1944.

Robert is about Robert Smalls who was a US Civil War era slave who stole a Confederate supply ship to free a group of slaves and himself. He eventually served in the US Congress.

This chapter makes reference to the movie Team America World Police which is full of juvenile and gross jokes. If you need context the Youtube codes are LasrD6SZkZk, iKqGXeX9LhQ, MYECYfY7Gu8

Dark ride: An indoor amusement ride that transports passengers through a series of specially lit scenes using guided vehicles. Disney's Haunted Mansion is an example.

This whole series is long and descriptive with lots of details to paint a picture in your mind.

Saturday, July 18, 2020

The shuttle bus took us to breakfast at Captain Joe's again and once we had all sat down, Claire led the morning meeting over breakfast, "Good morning couples! Today is the first day of a special shoot for the nudoir books. We will be heading to Robert Stephens Falls. The Cornwall Islands were never a slave colony thanks to our first Governor Robert Stephens, a Quaker which was a prominent anti-slavery organization. The government honored Robert Stephens, not only as our first governor in 1689, but also in honor of his staunch anti-slavery values. There were no permanent settlements until then due to fighting over The Cornwall Islands in the Anglo Dutch wars which had ended five years previous."

"This beautiful waterfall measuring forty feet high will be the backdrop for a photo session which will include makeup artists who will use water resistant makeup. You will all receive a class on photography concepts from none other than Jean Claude Debreux who was one of the photographers for Playboy from 1978 to 1984."

This was the first time we were going to be taking photos for the book, "Jennifer smiled... sort of then looked at me, "Joshua. Can we make this book more glamorous than sexual? I love the idea of making this book with you and I hope you love it when we are done... But... we literally have dozens of videos taken with my vagina open and your cum leaking out of me and they are going to be on the internet. Can we tone this one down?"

I nodded and was good with it. I took what she said on our wedding day to heart, "Don't tell me how I feel."

The falls were an hour to the Southwest of town in a hilly area of forest and the parking was a good half mile from the falls. We hiked a fairly easy path along the Stephens River to the base of the falls to see yet another picture postcard view of the waterfall which collected in a pool at the bottom. The pool was surrounded by a grassy flat area on the far side of the pool where they had five makeup artists waiting with chairs and makeup tables. I'll give credit, they were ready for us and Jennifer was in the second group of five so we had our class on manual camera settings with Jean Claude during the time the first group was having their makeup and hair done.

Jennifer asked if I had anything special in mind and I only asked that she not go for "Tammy Faye Baker" makeup as in too much. Jennifer was a pretty light touch with makeup at home and I always appreciated that. The request went well when she asked, "So you like me natural?"

I answered, "I love you being natural."

Her smile... I could see she relaxed as she understood I was on board with the book being softcore rather than hardcore. SCORE! I melted her heart completely with that one. I had no idea it would play so well, but I'll take the win.

When we were introduced to Jean Claude Debraux, now aged seventy-five. I appreciated that he emphasized beautiful poses with the beautiful scenery in the background over commercial overly bright and unnatural ones. Under his direction, I took almost two hundred pictures of my gorgeous wife. Two of the pictures ended up being my favorites; in one she is mostly walking away and toward the pool at the base of the waterfall and she is looking back at the camera over her shoulder. You only see her bottom and a bit of side boob, but her expression is coy and she has the warmest smile. The second was near the end when she dove into the deeper part of the pool then turned around and came back, hair wet and slicked back, walking toward the camera. It was fairly tame frontal nudity, but again, her smile... with a hint of 'You're getting laid later tonight' in her eyes.

To me, she is the ultimate beauty in female form.

Dinner was Burger Whirled, yes again, and no one complained when Movie Max took a vote on where to take us for dinner. BTW their Garlic Parm French Fries are yet another item that went on my too long favorites list.

Sunday, July 19, 2020

The TV alarm went off at a quarter after five and, ugh! That was early! After a quick breakfast in our place, we met our shuttle van at six that morning. I had heard that it was going to be worth it and certainly hoped so. It was ten minutes to the ferry and ten minutes across the harbor but another hour and a half ride west of the town of Devon to... Fuck! It was huge!

Most of us were dozing in the shuttle van taking the C4 Motorway Westward from Devon when we heard Sophia exclaim, "Oh!"

She had been roused as we came to stopped traffic and she was looking through the windshield. Earlier I was told the park was supposed to be a lot like an overlarge six flags. MaxPark was Six Flags plus Disney World plus a movie studio park in a single park and the scale was like comparing the average kid in a weekend peewee league to an NFL Lineman. Some of the other park owners claimed their parks were big and the owners of MaxPark took that as 'challenge accepted'.

At the entry to the road leading into the parking lot, 'standing guard' were a full size Optimus Prime, Bumblebee and Ratchet from the Transformers Movies and in the distant background, a full size USS Enterprise starship almost 950 feet long and 240 feet high. A larger ferris wheel and a massive observation tower that dwarfed them all.

This was even more impressive because: Roller coasters. So many roller coasters and you could see the first hill of many of them looming in the distance. They told us that they had used themes in MaxPark that were owned by Movie Max and it turns out they had acquired the rights to the Paramount franchises. I had not been following the news about MaxPark all that closely due to, well, life in general being a whirlwind of change.

We were all silent taking in the scale of it all as we drove inside toward the dropoff zone at the front of the parking lot. I have no idea how many billions had been spent on the complex and the cost was almost unfathomable. It wasn't just the park, hotel chains had poured money into the area.

Obviously, we were all excited. There is a term for being too old to enjoy an epicly huge amusement park: Dead.

I had read at work that the whole area had been filled to a minimum height of thirty-five feet above the high tide line from an average of twenty. The cost just for that was enormous. Ordinary people were hurting, gazillionaires, not so much, and they had poured a LOT of money into this project including a soon to be finished light rail line from the ferry docks in Devon to a station in the center of the hotel blocks and shopping area surrounding a manmade lake. It wasn't just Movie Max and whoever else was backing them directly. Hotel towers lined the far side of the park on the Atlantic Ocean and further to the right of them were three cruise ship piers with four cruise ships docked in four of the six berths.

After getting out of the van, we followed Jay to the ticket office where he conferred with someone and presented his phone. After that, we were ushered to a side entry gate marked, 'Groups' where we received a red wristband with a barcode and gold lettering, 'Movie Star'.

Once inside, Jay took us to the side then into a small adjacent office, "Good morning couples! As you can see MaxPark is truly Max! Well, we have a new request for you all for today. Obviously, they are not going to give us the whole park today so I am going to ask everyone to carry around an Airtag so our video people can find you.

Jay explained, "We do not have one video crew per couple and this park is over eighteen hundred acres so we are asking for some cooperation. I am going to provide the text number of our director who is in an office in the park. If you are going on a major ride or doing something interesting, just text them the word 'hi' so we can send a video person to get video. They have pretty good zoom lenses on their cameras today so they won't be in your face, but understand that we have purchased the high-end pass that costs three hundred fifty dollars instead of the standard eighty. It includes food at any of the in-park restaurants, yes including the sit down restaurants. We are asking that you help us locate you when you make use of your more expensive park pass which not only includes food and drink, it includes five 'Red Carpet' passes. Which are the short wait lines for each of the major rides. Don't waste them on small rides, use them when the line is long for one of the major rides."

Jay smiled, "As to scale, eighteen hundred acres is about three square miles. There are trolleys on the ground and cable gondolas overhead to get you from point A to point B and the entire park is surrounded by a steam train loop along the edge. Because this park was built ground up and they learned the lessons from other parks, things are not crammed on top of each other and are more spread out. Use the transportation system and your feet will thank you later."

Jay pointed at the wall where there was a QR code on the wall marked 'Park Map'. That sure beat having to carry a paper map when we had no pockets to put them in. Jay ended with, "Understand rides here have ratings up to what Americans would think of as rated R and 15+ in the UK though I would say 17 is a better indicator. Not everything in the park is G-rated and each sign will give the reason for the rating. You have been warned. One final word. Look around, you may see familiar faces somewhere in the park. Lecture over. Have fun."

Jennifer started pulling me toward the full-size Starship Enterprise and I had no idea she was a Trekkie, er Trekker as they prefer. As asked, I texted 'hi' to the director though I suspect he or she was getting lots of messages while it was early and lines were short. The line led into a lobby where we were grouped with thirty-eight other park guests, then they closed the door and we were greeted by the only person dressed. A black woman perhaps around age thirty entered the lobby dressed in a Starfleet uniform and greeted us 'in character', "Welcome cadets..."

The group of forty was broken down into eight groups of four to eight people where we entered another door that was made up to look like a Star Trek shuttle. In truth, it was just an elevator with a screen that showed us going into orbit that took us up to the saucer section that held the ride which was more of a show. We gathered in another lobby made to look like a shuttle bay then walked up to the bridge where they started a 'tour for cadets' which was interrupted by a Dominion attack. There was a space battle where they took several members from the audience which included Cara who made a badass weapons officer.

We won the battle. I know. Duh, but the ship was 'so badly damaged' we had to evacuate the now crippled Enterprise and 'Return to Earth.' Lots of fun.

The Trouble With Tribbles ride was in a separate building on the ground and was a typical if rather funny 'dark ride' type ride themed around the 'Trouble With Tribbles' episode of the original series. They dropped tribbles on you at the end. At the end signs assured us that the whole system laundered the 'tribbles' after each use and we were allowed to each keep a tribble which was just a furry blob. At the gift shop at the end of the ride you could purchase one of three inserts, one just a stuffing for five dollars, one animatronic but random, and finally one was fully phone controllable animatronic. Jennifer wanted us both to have the fully phone controlled tribble and I wasn't dumb enough to argue with her so eighty bucks later, we had them.

Cara paid ten bucks for the video version of her adventure and Maxpark had a better idea than the places that sold USB sticks. They texted her an email link so she did not have to carry around a USB stick all day.

They had another smart idea and I'll have to hand it to MaxPark. You could rent a locker which was free if you bought ten dollars worth of stuff then put a hundred dollar deposit down and gave them your home address when you set it up. They took your address and shipped your stuff automatically at the end of the day and refunded the difference after shipping charges if you did not pick up the items at the end of the day. It ended up costing twenty bucks shipping for us and we did not have to carry our tribbles and other things we bought around all day.

Next to 'Star Fleet' was the 'Yellowstone' area. '1883' is a typical dark ride in a faux covered wagon with attacks from Native Americans and a faux 'river crossing'.

The 'Yellowstone' ride was a laser shooter dark ride somewhat similar to the Buzz Lightyear Ride at Disney World. They were pretty smart to not have the shooting game based on taking out outlaw bikers and land speculators rather than basing it on 1883 and shooting Native Americans which would surely bring in a ton of protests.

After leaving the Yellowstone section we headed to the closest roller coaster, a fairly typical suspended coaster named Mercury which travelled over gardens and water features. After that, we went on Sawyers Flume, a larger, but typical flume ride with a California Gold Rush theme.

It was pretty much getting on one ride that was next to the other as we took advantage of the early lack of lines to the Soaring Eagle, a large wing coaster where we sat eight across under a fiberglass bald eagle figure and then rode a bobsled coaster named Kangaroo which is a near copy of the rather tame original coaster The Wild Mouse.

We had managed to finish the Star Fleet and Yellowstone sections plus one another of the flume rides and the roller coasters when we decided to take an early lunch at half past eleven then it would require quite a bit more standing in line or using one of our Red Carpet passes.

We headed to the Top Gun section of the park and saw there was quite a line for the Maverick ride which made it clear our decision to eat an early lunch was a good one before the food places filled up.

Red October Subs was better than some of the burger stands we saw, but below the full sitdown restaurants we saw in the park map we had on our phones. My Philly Steak sub and Jennifer's Honey Mustard Chicken Sub were well above the norm and neither was so large as to make us feel overfull for a full afternoon of rides.

'F14 Tomcat' based on the original Top Gun was our first Red Carpet pass. A typical, if very long at over five minutes, steel coaster that went fast, but not as fast as the 350 foot high vertical drop roller coaster 'F35'.

After the long wait in the sun, Jennifer wanted to do something with a shorter line and not burn all our Red Carpet Passes all at once. Next to us was 'Rom Com'. There was a sign In front of the theatre, 'Age 13+ Crude Humor.' Jennifer pointed and nodded with a hopeful smile telegraphing, 'I know you will hate it but... please?!"

Sigh! She gave me puppy dog eyes and you know damn well I gave in. I saw Cara dragging Jayson in a few minutes later just as the door closed. It was a theatre style show but with audience participation. I was ready to be tortured for the advertised half-hour show.

I liked it! Sue me.

It was a romcom, but... It made fun of every rom-com cliche there was and as a bonus, had tons of sharp sarcasm then added even more master ninja level sarcasm into the dialog and the show did not take itself seriously at all.

As I said, the show featured audience participation and Jayson and Cara were picked. They took the parts of the Characters 'Jayson and Cara', yes I know, how original. They were taken backstage for a couple of minutes for instructions. Each had a 'director' giving them instructions before the scene, often done with sarcasm as the director told them how amazing their acting skills were and how they were surely destined to be A-listers in Hollywood. Of course they had other cast members holding up giant cue cards to keep them on track.

It started with Jayson finding his fiance Brittany McCheat making out with Dirk Cox. Brittany was a giant chested bleach blond and Dirk was a NFL Quarterback billionaire movie star doctor yoga-instructor and mime. Yes, really. Mime.

Of course, Jayson had to go to a bar to drown his sorrows and a random stranger immediately made a ridiculous bet of a million dollars and 'An Amazon Gift Card' that Jayson could not catch the eye of the movie starlet 'Cara Starr'. This led to Jayson confidently saying the ultimate romantic pickup line to Cara, 'Hi'. Cara took one look at him then they immediately started making out and I mean the wettest tongue-down-the-throat makeout snog.

They managed to cover the 'left at the altar', 'faux breakup', and subsequent 'chocolate ice cream binge' where Cara managed to 'eat' more than ten gallons of ice cream using fake ice cream and a prop bowl that made it disappear. Not many women can burp on cue, Cara can, and not just a little 'bip'. Nice touch!

Several scenes later, there was the cliche scene as Jayson sang to Cara in an over-the-top bar scene where Cara just happened to be there and the desperate Jayson was going to impress Cara with his singing to win her back. The obvious dub still worked as Jayson sang 'Rock Your Baby' by George Mcrae where Jayson did a scarily good job of the hip swaying- thrusting dance of the mid 1970s video from American Bandstand.

The final cliche was when this huge muscled black guy 'Dashawn Dickson' who had a huge prosthetic thirty inch dick tried wooing Cara with the most ridiculous and obvious pick up artist moves and lines yet she declared her everlasting love for Jayson. Then Jayson 'punched out' Dashawn at the end with a telegraphed Popeye roundhouse punch that was three feet from Dashawn, but somehow the punch sound announced he had hit and Dashawn who went flying backwards and Cara leapt into his arms with 'My hero!' and they made out porno style again.

The end? The director directed everyone and nearly the whole fucking audience sang the end song as 'Credits' rolled. The song: Old Fashioned Love Song by Three Dog Night. Did I sing along with ninety percent of the rest of the audience? Damn right I did! Jennifer was loving that I was singing along with her.

Jayson did get to keep the twenty-five dollar Amazon gift card. Too bad about the million dollars he did not get. I paid ten bucks for the download link even though I wasn't an actor in the show, but they did have the video of the audience at the end.. It sounds lame and probably was. It was also epic fun.

The Shrek ride was rated for kids and had a shorter line. It was next to Romcom so we went there next. It was a typical dark ride with everyone sitting in boats going by scenes from the movie. Think of it as being similar to Disney's 'It's a Small World' ride with less annoying music and a better plot.

There were two horror based rides based on Movie Max series; the first was named July Eighteenth which was based on the alien invasion movie of the same name. There was a big sign in the front, 'Age 17+ Intense simulated violence'. This one was a theatre in the round style 'ride' and was extremely intense including a scene where aliens started dissecting a live and awake woman as the lights went dark. No visuals of the cutting, but a little too real and those screams! It was like a very realistic Halloween horror movie and when you see the warning for this ride, believe them!

I needed a break after that one and found some comedic relief in the dark ride 'Up In Smoke' with a Cheech and Chong theme. This one was rated age 13+ drug theme. I'll have to admit the ride surprised me with the weed theme, but it was cleverly done and rather funny with some guy I did not know picked from the audience being their good friend and 'smoking' a fake 'joint' the size of a tennis ball can which put out huge amounts of vapor 'smoke'.

One of the rides that hit my gut was 'Robert' which simulated the real life escape of Robert Smalls and the other slaves he rescued from slavery in 1862 during the US Civil War. This was a different version of a dark ride on seats made to look like a small ship where the faux ship moved through scenes to run to the Union blockade which was anchored offshore.

We used a trolley to get to the other side of the park where we used the second Red Carpet pass on going to the top of the Governor Robert Stephens observation tower which is the third tallest observation tower in the world. We rode the elevator to the top of the tower at six hundred meters tall, which is 1968 feet. What a stupendous view which put the horizon at over fifty miles away.

We rode the cable gondolas to a distant section of the park where 'Omaha' was a dark ride simulating being in the first wave of the D Day landings in France based on the Movie Max streaming series of the same name. This one, too, was harrowing though again, it did come with a warning for age 17+ and intense simulated violence. In the first scene, you had the first person perspective of being in the first wave of D-Day as the transport door opened at the front. It was an intense ride, but gave me even more respect for the men who landed at Omaha Beach. I understand the age 17+ rating, but this ride gave so much perspective to those sacrifices made as they pulled no punches as the video of the guy next to me 'running' up the beach was hit by gunfire and went down.

Next up was Indiana Jones, another dark ride featuring various scenes from the movies like running from the giant stone ball from The Lost Ark and the scene from Last Crusader where Jones had to pick the correct goblet to heal his father.

There was a whole section of the park based on How to Train Your Dragon including two major rides, the first was a hanging roller coaster with a fast but not overwhelmingly fast first hill where the seats were made to look like dragon saddles from the movie.

The second ride in the area was one of the better of the two that I enjoyed thoroughly. It was a theatre where groups sat down in seats done up to look like a dragon saddle. You wore the new and better 3D glasses as it simulated 'Flying' on the back of the dragon, complete with the seat banking and angling and large fans creating 'wind' as we flew. The ride was not scary and felt somewhat realistic as long as I was facing forward with my 3D glasses on.

The next big area was based on the GI Joe movie series so we headed there next. The sheer scope of the park often dictated what you would do next as you could easily exhaust yourself if you skipped around too much. The biggest ride in the GI Joe area was a steel roller coaster named The Rise of Cobra. We used our third Red Carpet Pass as the line was shown over an hour according to the sign a good 100 feet ahead of the end of the line. The first hill was very big and very fast. I was pretty proud that I didn't hold on for any of the other coasters and I managed to not do it on this one, but it was fun on the other coasters but the air is screaming past you at one-hundred-twenty-two miles per hour and it was more of a grunt challenge that I bet myself I could do. I won my bet with myself and gained nothing.

We took a trolley to the center where they had an area of buildings done up in various styles like Mexico, Switzerland, and others. Yes, we all know who they stole that from. We decided to have dinner at a sit-down German themed place named Schwarzwald where we both had Wiener Schnitzel done to perfection. The food was master level perfect all in a theatre style room where they did a Schuhplattler dance but more the Chevy Chase version where the men faux slapped and hit each other for slapstick fun. There was no real violence, just a lot of silliness.

About a half hour after we ate dinner, Sophia was the one to find what Jay had meant by 'Familiar' and texted everyone in our group, 'I found the familiar thing Jay talked about. Come to the Movie Max Souvenir store near the front of the park.'

After riding a trolley across the park, we walked in and passed the displays of merchandise from their various franchises to a room that said 'Coming Soon' Sophia was with Anthony standing in front of a poster and I was surprised when I saw the poster with all of our pictures on it. The photos were just of our faces and were from the neck up even though most people in the park were au naturale, obviously it was a general audience version of their promotion poster they could show publicly in the US or Europe.

'Reality TV like you have never seen'

'What if you were jobless and on the verge of being homeless in a hopeless economy'

'What if there was a way out, but it cost you everything'

'Quite literally, EVERYTHING'

'Coming February 2022.'

I'm not going to lie, Seeing the poster hit me harder than anything I had seen in months. It was a stark reminder that through our adventures, Movie Max was taking their due.

After staring at the poster with a range of emotions, we used our final Red carpet pass for the second horror based ride based on a Movie Max series. It was a dark ride based on the Movie Max horror series Revenant which also had the Age 17+ rating. Again a little too realistic as many scenes featured people the Revenant had possessed as they did horrific things to their victims only for The Revenant to leave the person they had possessed after committing the atrocity. This left the victim dead through horrific torture and the formerly possessed now facing charges for the gruesome crime. I did not enjoy that ride as I have never been a fan of horror movies.

After going through The Revenant I needed something a lot lighter so we went into a theatre style acting show Team America World Police where they picked people from the audience to play roles. There was a big sign out front saying 'Crude Humor. Strong Profanity. Age 17+'

After sitting, their attendants scanned the room and I was picked to play the part of Harry Bonaire, Yes really. Harry Bonaire. Another audience member from the UK was picked to play Dick Hertzer and two women who received the names were Jenna Tulls and Connie Linguess. You get the idea. Crude as heck but hey, I'm mentally twelve anyway and found it hilarious!

The overall plot was mostly different from the released version, but it was based on the opening scene of the over the top, not politically correct film and featured a ton of slapstick violence and blowing things up with RPG's. Hey!, I got to blow up The Kremlin and Osama Bin Laden! Being one of the half dozen audience members picked for roles in their skit, I very much enjoyed singing, 'America, Fuck Yeah!' The British and the Australian guys playing the parts of Dick Hertzer and Hugh G Rection sang the song with as much gusto as I did. They only omitted the line about slavery and replaced it with 'Machine Guns', Fuck yeah! The Cornwall Islands having started as a Quaker colony that did not have slavery made that line a bridge too far and I was happy with the change.

I got to play their version of the puke scene where I was to fall down stumbling drunk after faux drinking 5 gallons of vodka in a bar scene where I drank from the bottle which actually recycled what was probably water but did it from the side so it kind of looked like I drank. Same trick in reverse where I stumbled out and puke 20 gallons or so of brown colored water that went into a drain system. Crude, gross, and AWESOME!

At the end they had a repeat karaoke of America, Fuck Yeah! for the whole audience, and believe it or not, most of the people participated in singing of the super extended version with two dozen bonus lines of the song, Fuck Yeah! You can bet every cent you have I paid the ten bucks for a download link to be sent to my phone with the video of the show.

Jennifer was distinctly not amused with most of the show, but was a good sport and hey, I didn't put up too much fuss about going into Rom Com. You sure as hell could not do that ride in the US today, but The Cornwall Islands? Fuck Yeah!

Our final big ride of the night was the Dungeons And Dragons ride. Another dark ride through a dungeon with monsters we could aim a laser 'crossbow' for points. By the way, the little orc at the end waving at you is worth a million points even though the target is painted the same color as the rest of his armor. You're welcome.

Jay had us gather at nine for a fireworks show done on a scale I had never seen before. A Half hour of constant fireworks, often multiples, all choreographed to a number of movie themes. By the time it ended at half past nine. Jay greeted us at the gate with a big smile, "So, did Movie Max deliver or did we deliver?"

Yeah, they delivered and we practically dragged ourselves to the shuttle van for the ride home. Once home, we staggered in the door and I texted Gemma, 'LATE night with Movie Max. I'm beyond exhausted. Taking advantage of flex time and starting at ten in the morning.'

Gemma texted back, 'Take one of your vacation days and that is an order. Don't make me fire you for showing up when you shouldn't. We have time off for a reason and in The Cornwall Islands, we don't hold using it against you.'

Damn, I like working for her.

Monday, July 20, 2020

The first day of my taking over the West Park Tram Station where I met my crew leaders. Not a lot to report other than Owen Corneys had requested his next assignment be wherever I was assigned. It felt good, of course, that several of the crew leaders and crew members had requested to work under me again.

You don't want a longer description of the eight and a half additional hours of meetings and going over construction drawings.

Tuesday, July 21, 2020

I was texted to come in for a meeting at work that afternoon for an update to the scope of my current project. I met Jennifer for lunch since I was going to be in the area and we tried a place called Salad Daze which was near her workplace. My Chicken Caesar Salad was mostly dressing and I know, typical for a guy. My wife appreciated my making time for her and that I let her pick the place. Sometimes it's the little stuff to keep her happy which keeps her close as it is easier to keep a relationship good than fix a bad one.

After lunch which included a wonderful soft kiss and a cheek stroke from my wife, telling me I had scored bigly for the lunch, I headed into work and Gemma followed me up to my cubicle. As I sat down, she plopped a folder down on my desk and said, "Since your project is physically the closest, you get to oversee the installation of The Christmas Market."

Gemma smirked at me, "You are going to be working for your wife."

I knew I was actually working for the Tourism Department, but I liked Gemma's snark and looked at her, "Well I work for you so you must work for her also."

Gemma gave me a bit of side eye then laughed, "Touche', Joshua. Touche."

She got serious, "Just help her with the construction and logistical part. Run any big purchases directly through The Interior Department to keep things simple and let her concentrate on the celebration angle."

"There is a meeting tomorrow night at seven at the Parliament Building concerning the compensation we are to receive from China for the failed traction motors. The responsibility portion has been worked out and they know the demands are coming. We are going to ask for some material to be added to an as yet undefined refund settlement and that part will involve you both. There is a rear entrance in The Parliament Building that leads to conference rooms and that is where we will meet."

Gemma looked at me and said, "I will need a basic list of the materials needed for the Christmas Market by noon tomorrow."

I spent the afternoon researching what had been done during previous Christmas Markets including the ones over a decade ago that were considerably larger. My crew leaders knew what to do in my absence. THAT is the value of good hard working tradesmen. They knew what to do, then did it without me standing over them.

Wednesday, July 21, 2020

The meeting was actually for half past seven, but we arrived at seven as requested. Charles Hall was already there along with Sir Oliphant and Gemma, along with several other members of Parliament.

Sir Oliphant was growing on me. He was a fat bag of wind, but I saw the brilliance and dedication in all his actions and appreciated that he gave us goals to hit and did not sweat the details of how we got there. He nodded politely, if a bit distantly, "Joshua, Jennifer, you are to say nothing during this meeting until called on. The heavy part of the diplomacy has been handled, but we need your input at the end. You will say nothing of this meeting to anyone outside of this group, but we need your input at the end during the negotiations. Stick strictly to the subjects you are asked as we have some unexpected guests for the Chinese delegation to worry about and they will do their own thing."

Gemma handed me back the list I had given her at noon with most of the tooling, logistics, and such crossed out, but a number of items checked off, "I have some redacted copies of the checked items to give out. Here is your original list. You will see the pattern."

The pattern was pretty simple; nontechnical products which China competently cranked out by the container load.

We walked into the room to find Fat British spy guy and US Spy Bitch sitting at the table along with Ed Williamson, the Tourism Minister and Barbara Billing, the Director of Tourism. Sir Oliphant did the few necessary introductions as four East Asians walked into the room, two men and two women. No one was smiling.

The elder Asian man spoke, "I am Shen Zhongxian, these are my associates Liu Jian, Zhou Jujie, and Gao Yanmei, we are here to conclude compensation for the misunderstanding between our nations."

He looked at our guests from the UK and the US and sneered a bit, "Having foreign intelligence operatives in this meeting after the diplomatic part has been concluded? How quaint."

Charles Hall sighed, "Not taking the bait. Let's get this over with. The first two demands are not negotiable. The first is that Li Yong never return to The Cornwall Islands. We know very well who she is, her role in directly trying to break into our Interior Department, and that she works directly for your intelligence services. The second is that you take the following list of people to China and that those people are never allowed to return here."

Shen Zhongxian looked at the list then passed it to the others. The elder woman sitting to his right, Gao Yanmei, looked and subtly nodded. He said, "Interesting list that includes nine of your citizens."

Charles shrugged, "They worked for you. You broke them, you bought them. You must, of course, give them reasonable lives and accommodation in your country. After all, they gave literally everything to help you. They are facing 20 years on treason charges, and quite frankly, we don't feel any obligation to feed them and house them for two decades. Have them teach English or something. Think of it as good advertising for working your intelligence services that they will be taken care of if things don't work out."

The elder woman chuckled at that and again, gave a subtle nod.

Shen Zhongxian was impatient, "And what else?"

Charles remained calm, "Take back your shitty motors and refund the money. Also, your welding units were bad, you will take those back and refund the money."

Shen Zhongxian's face tightened, but Gao Yanmei remained carefully neutral. He said, "Those motors were not junk, nor were the welding units."

Charles pulled out two reports and handed them over to Shen Zhonxian who read them for perhaps a minute then looked angry and passed them back to Gao Yanmei who also read them, got angry and shook her head and said something in Chinese that I am pretty sure was along the lines of an angry, "What the fuck?!"

Gao Yanmei held up her hand and said, "We need to confer alone for a few minutes."

They walked outside, assuming the rooms were wired for sound, then came back five minutes later.

Shen Zhongxian was a little less disrespectful when he came back with a resigned look, "And what else?"

When Charles manipulated Jennifer into taking over The Christmas Market, he had a feral smile, but it was friendly feral. I only know this now because I saw Charles' angry feral smile, "Twenty-five million US dollars. Don't even think of paying in Guyanese dollars."

Both of the elders of the Chinese delegation shook their heads strongly and Shen Zhongxian almost shouted, "Outrageous!"

Charles leaned back and calmly asked, "What do you think is a good number to make this little 'misunderstanding' go away? I hear you make some decent money and make good business contacts in your area in The Canal District."

Gao Yanmei whispered in Shen Zhongxian's ear. Shen nodded a bit angrily, "Two point five million."

Charles pouted then said, "Fine, but we have a list of products we need."

All four of the Chinese delegation looked surprised as Gemma handed them the lists. I saw that Gao Yanmei clearly had an 'aha' moment and waited.

Charles looked at Jennifer, "This is Jennifer Simmons who will be using the items in the list. She has input for the specifics."

Jennifer shined because of her brilliance and she saw the list for what it was; nontechnical Chinese Christmas products that China made by the container load. The line on the list I had made was just 'Christmas Decorations', but Jennifer rattled off a list of items; lights and ornaments, garlands and bows, some commercial sized, some residential sized. You get the idea and it was longer, but I won't bore you with more specifics.

The second big item on the list was twenty-foot containers. Gao Yenmei was taken aback a bit at that demand and was curious about the demand for four hundred, twenty-foot shipping containers along with an equal number of office trailer conversion kits that had gabled roof sections and an equal number of roll-up doors, "What are you going to do with four hundred converted container office trailers?"

Jennifer explained, "Make Christmas Market booths out of them. The back half will be small sleeping quarters for the booth owners as many will be coming in from other areas and hotels are expensive and out of many of their budgets. We will put in a side door and two window openings for air, then cut off the standard doors and weld the roll up door ends to make opening and closing the booths easy."

Shen Zhonxian was impatient, "Is that all?"

Charles sighed, "I guess." He looked at me, "Anything to add, Joshua"

I nodded, "I've seen how containers age. No junk containers that are all rusty, used and abused."

Shen Zhonxian looked back and Gao Yanmei nodded and said abruptly before we could add to the list, "Okay. Done. We have to go now!" he looked back at Gao Yanmei who nodded slightly and stood up. Shen Zhonxian was an imperious bastard, but Gao seemed a little less awful. It was also clear she was in charge from the beginning.

Once they were gone, the thin British spy guy from my earlier meeting came in, "Interesting!"

He whispered in Fat British spy guy's ear then US spy bitch ear and both nodded then said, "We had assets outside with shotgun mics listening along with an interpreter. The motors and the welding units being defective was news to them and they thought the claim was spurious. This whole mess was them working to spread influence and the bribing and influence part was correct. They never meant for the motors or welding units to be anything but fully functional products. Some people back in China are going to end up spending a long time in prison. They actually intended to sell us functional products."

Charles' mood had changed from resigned to happy, "Hot damn!"

I was surprised, "What?"

Charles laughed, "My defeated attitude at taking only two and a half million was fake and my asking for the extra cash was a spur of the moment gamble and I gambled right. I knew damn well they would never fork over twenty-five million in cash, but I originally only wanted the refund plus the containers, conversion kits and decorations."

I looked at him, "The money was just an add on?"

Charles smirked a mile wide, "YEP! They were clearly surprised with our quality reports and attention to detail. Thanks for those reports, by the way. Awesome job in documenting the failures with hard data that they could not refute."

Remind me to NEVER EVER EVER play poker with Charles Hall.

Monday, July 27, 2020

I received a company wide text that the Fantasy Draft for The Premier League teams was to be held on the following Monday. After the meeting, I was clueless and asked Gemma, "Can I have someone help me with the draft?"

Gemma shook her head strongly, "Absolutely not! If you win the pool, you will win on your own. You can come with lists and get help with those, but on draft day, you will be on your own and cannot phone for advice. No one is allowed to phone or text a ringer. Besides, you will have only a minute or less to make your decisions."

Well, I figured that I was out my entry fee and would take some shit, but it was what it was and I liked my workplace and most of the people in it.

Thursday, July 30, 2020

I was on my own for dinner again as Jennifer was at another meeting about The Christmas Market. They televise them on a Cornwall Islands channel. Think of it as being like C-Span but much slower and much less interesting. I will say that I love the transparency laws. Even things like this were considered public record so citizens knew where and how the tax money was being spent.

Friday, July 31, 2020

Jennifer was waiting for me at the front door of The Interior Department after work as I exited and we headed hand in hand to The Fountain at eleven that morning as usual. I paid my way in along with my wife and Joyce who greeted me with, "Thank you, son." My mother-in-law loved me like her own son. Yeah, it was wonderful to have a mom who treated me right. A motherly kiss on the cheek: Food for the soul.

Walking in, the main topic of conversation was the draft as a lot of workplaces held their company drafts on the same Monday. Very little business got done on 'Draft Monday' It was almost like a non-work workday. The obsession with The Premier League was a real thing.

It was decided that Squatch would help us since Cal did not want to work against Arra who would be in the same betting pool as I was and he was her advisor. Yes, the women were also involved in their workplace fantasy teams and Arra was often very competitive. I have no ill feelings about it and understand completely. She had this glowing in her 'aura' in her smile every time she looked at him. Yeah, I see an engagement ring in her future.

After spending some time bullshitting with friends, we sat down with Squatch as he studied the rosters and made notes for himself then started, went through the lists of players and we took notes. It is not as simple as it seems. There were lists of 'best players', but some of the best in one category were basically duplicates of each other and we needed to fill each position with the best possibilities for that position, but also reduce other people's options in the second and beyond rounds. In the end, my papers were long and rather confusing. I knew I didn't have a chance of winning, but I was hoping to not come in last.

With papers in hand and even ensuring we kept the information by taking phone pictures of our lists, the rest of the day was pretty normal talking and hanging out with my friends at The Fountain which was like a big family. Robert joined us at half past four and we just hung out with our massive extended family at The Fountain. New fan or old fan, you were family.

Saturday, August 1, 2020

The shuttle van took us to the Somerset Car Museum to take photos for the nudoir books. Jay was our host and started with the usual, "Good morning couples!"

I wonder how many times I have heard and will hear some version of this greeting until the two years is up.

"Today is our next formal workshop for the nudoir books and this will take place at the Somerset Car Museum. There are some rules for interacting with these valuable pieces of history. You may open the cars and sit in them, IN THE SEATS, but are cautioned to not remove the seat covers they have installed to protect the interiors. They are clear and hard to see, though will feel like the plastic they are made from. No climbing around on hoods or standing on the roof. This is not a Whitesnake music video."

"I would like to introduce Gerald McShaw who is the photographer for Hot Rodd Magazine, which is now only appearing on the internet."

Hot Rodd was one of those typical bikini girls and cars magazines, but now only appears online. Not sure how well he will handle photographing women with natural hair colors and natural chests, but I will have an open mind.

Gerald was in his early 60's with a goatee who kind of looked like a hippy though he was technically a bit too young to be a real hippy from the late 1960s. He was dressed in jeans and a Hot Rodd Magazine T-shirt of a 1980's cover of a modified Model T hot rod with a bleach blonde with enormous and likely plastic chest. He was the only one in the room wearing anything.

He chuckled, "So I bet you think I am going to teach you to take pictures like the one on my shirt?"

No one wanted to be rude, but I would imagine that is what everyone was thinking.

He shook his head, "Actually I will ask you, what are your goals? You see, the picture on my shirt was the goal of my client. They wanted a certain image and that is what I provided to them. Most of the women I photographed did dual shoots with me and the bikini and back facing side boob shots were followed by much more explicit posing during the same sessions. They sold those images to different publications that ranged from mere nudity to explicit use of sex toys."

He turned on a monitor he had set up and started a slide show, "I've also done work for several now defunct so-called softcore magazines and yes, hardcore too. He showed us an image of a very pretty woman with 1980's hair in a rather Playboy-esque pose then followed it up with an image of the same blonde from his T-shirt inserting a very large dildo in a harshly lit room.

"I created the image that was asked of me. Movie Max has paid me well to teach you things. Let me ask a simple question: What images do you want to create?"

No one said a thing so Gerald looked around the room then looked at Sophia, "You! You are absolutely adorable! What is your name?"

Sophia was in shy mode and quietly answered, "Sophia."

Gerald was a good personality reader. I never would have guessed but he said, "Shy I see. Well, let me ask, is that your husband sitting next to you."

Sophia was uncomfortable when she nodded and Gerald did the damndest thing. Instead of looming over her, he knelt down in front of her and said, "Sophia. I picked you because you are the very definition of cute. I won't hurt you. I promise and I won't push you to be more explicit than you consent to and without any pressure. I am going to help your husband take your pictures and teach everyone a few things I have learned over the years. I am very good at what I do. I won't hurt you, I promise, but you are devastatingly adorable."

THAT compliment made Sophia smile.

He looked over at Anthony, "And lucky husband of this beautiful creature before me, what is your name?"

Anthony smiled, Gerald was laying it on thick, but it was working when he said, "Anthony."

Gerald only then stood up after he said in the least threatening voice I could imagine, "Sophia. Would you please follow me with your husband then the rest of the class over to the gallery lobby?"

We walked over to the entry of the gallery lobby which featured a perfectly restored Ford F1 pickup on a central dais and three halls leading to different galleries in different wings: US and Canada, Europe, World. The lobby was circular and was lined with benches around the outer walls. Gerald gestured for us to sit then moved a bench to sit across from them. I began to see the man's brilliance. He was a tall and large man who was very careful to not loom over people to intimidate them.

He looked at them both and asked, "Okay, basics. How explicit?"

Anthony was careful to let Sophia speak for herself and just shrugged at her to push her into answering.

It took a few seconds, but Sophia said, "Not very. I mean, we do actual sex videos as part of our deal with Movie Max, but this is for us, so no spread poses. I suppose my vagina will show as my vulvae are shaved bare, but I'm not doing spread poses."

He nodded then brought out his phone and said, "Here is a series of pictures from non-nude to extremely explicit. Point to the picture that shows the furthest you want to show."

Sophia was actually beginning to relax a bit and even smiled and pointed at a picture I could not see, "That one."

Gerald nodded then clicked the picture then showed us the image Sophia had selected. It was of a rather pretty woman sitting back in a chair and the photo was taken from her front. Her legs were perhaps a foot apart in a relaxed pose so her knees were angled a bit out, but not outright spread. You could see her labia, but they were closed. A little lippy, but definitely no gapping. It was simply a woman sitting relaxed who was 'unconcerned' about modesty and doing the crossed legs thing.

He talked to them about themes and it turned out to be pretty typical and came down to using the cars as a nice background. He set up a monitor for us to watch then had Sophia stand by the F1. He went on to describe lighting in terms of color temperature and things like sharp and softer focus. He described what he was doing then took a picture then made a change then took another and displayed both pictures side by side. It all made sense and he was an excellent teacher. I noticed that Sophia warmed up to him and started to enjoy her shoot. Though shy, she had her exhibitionist side and became more confident in telling him what she liked.

Once they had gone through quite a few things, he looked at Anthony and said, "Why don't you take some pictures of your adorable wife?"

They both smiled. Gerald was a very good teacher with a comforting presence. Gerald watched the first few pictures Anthony took and nodded, "I think you have it! I am going to help the others now."

And with that, he gestured, "I will be walking around helping people as I explore. Come get me if you have specific questions."

We headed to the US wing of the museum and the collection was extensive. I did get some excellent pictures of Jennifer standing and leaning back against a 1936 Cord. There were a good dozen excellent shots including a few she cautioned me she did not want in the book which were a bit more explicit and were 'For my wonderful husband only'. One was of her facing away, bent over with legs apart and yeah, nice. I love my wife's intimate charms.

Next was a Seminole Red 1959 Cadillac, yes the one with the big back fins. We took a lot of pictures and a lot were near the tail end of the car. Those big fins made for a great backdrop for the photos.

The third big winner of the day was a 1985 Lamborghini Countach and we ended with two great pictures from that car. One with Jennifer leaning over the hood from the far side with her boobs hanging straight down. Jennifer is a B-Cup so hanging is a bit of a misnomer. Boobs and nips were pointing down. Still sexy as hell. The second was one of the more explicit photos that did make it into the book. Tame by current porno standards, but Jennifer was leaning against the side right in front of the door which was in the up position. She was leaning against the car with her legs a bit apart. Not spread, but her innies showed a bit and understand that Jennifer has smaller 'designer' inner labia that are not prominent if she is not spreading more than a bit.

I'll stop there with the long descriptions. We ended up with other pictures involving a 1963 Corvette with the split window, a 1957 Chevy which of course could be no other color than Matador Red, and a 2017 Bugatti Chiron.

The final favorite of the day was a 1954 Mercedes 300 SL 'gull wing' roadster and yeah, I had a dozen shots of it without Jennifer and around two dozen with. One with her posing next to the gull wing door was a perfect hit and did end up in the book.

Gerald was the perfect teacher and his use of real life examples and showing two pictures of a concept side by side was the best way of illustrating the things he was teaching us.

Jay noted that we were all enthusiastic about Gerald and his teaching methods. The next day was supposed to just be a volleyball day on one of the coves West of Somerset. Gerald agreed to stay another day to teach us more while doing an outdoor shoot. I'll spare you the long description of that Sunday, and we had a late day where he gave us a real life demonstration of the so-called 'Golden Hour'.

After we got back home, we were tired so stopped at the Tesco Express at the end of our street for a couple of hot to-go meals. After dinner, we just sat on the couch in front of the TV watching nothing in particular as Jennifer brought her laptop. After loading the day's pictures onto it, we went over each and every picture, picking our favorites. She was fishing for compliments so I gave them to her. She wanted her ego fed so I fed it to bursting.

We made love that night twice; very intensely.

I love my wife.

Monday, August 3, 2020

Draft Monday: I walked into work with my list to find everyone standing around the conference table on the second floor and a monitor with hundreds of names listed alphabetically with a zero after each name. The vast majority of people had a paper or papers in hand. Some had their phone as backup, and did not want to risk losing their lists if their phones decided to be stubborn.

It is surprising how thin the talent is then you realize there were going to be fifty three teams and all employees save Sir Oliphant were taking part. Each real life player could be picked four times, but still, there were only around five hundred total players. The first part was to pick numbers from one to fifty three from a bowel which was done by Arra who was wearing a blindfold. I ended up with number thirty six in the first round.

It was going to be tough. We picked in order of the draw until we got to number fifty three then we drew again for the second round. I don't know why they didn't use budgets to reign in the lucky people that got to pick early and it was dog eat dog.

Gemma was the hostess and reiterated all of the rules which did not follow the rules they used in the UK for their fantasy leagues. A squad consisted of two goalkeepers, five defenders, five midfielders and three forwards. I'll spare you repeating the round-by-round. I drew pick twenty-six on the second round, fifty on the third and you get the idea. The fifth round was my highest pick at sixteen. I had the last pick in the eleventh and last regular round. There was one mercy rule, they added up all the pick places and we went in reverse order for the additional last four spots. I had the third worst pick draws so had third best pick chances in the bonus rounds. By then, the talent was pretty thin and well, my notes did not go that far. I was picking almost blind.

The draft took nine hours and it was five before I headed home! The catered lunch from Kroger saved the day. People wandered to and from the table as draft positions were drawn and people realized it was going to be quite a while before their pick came up.

Saturday, August 8 2020

This was the first day for The Premier League and our assignment from Movie Max was to watch the first games for our team so we along with all our friends and my in-laws went down to The Fountain and it was packed and it was early. The Cornwall Islands are 4 time zones West of the UK so that meant the games started at eleven in the morning. Most of the people had shown up early as this was a big day on the islands.

Cover was two hundred bucks per person but the setup was ridiculous in the best way possible and we were warned ahead of time that it was a huge event more than just a typical day and people saved up for it.

I paid my in-laws cover and I received a simple 'Thanks' from my father-in-law. They were doing okay, but the cover would be too extravagant for them and I loved them as my family and the day would be incomplete without them. Their income was around seventy thousand a year which was in the low fifties after taxes while Jennifer and I were somewhere in the high two hundreds once you included our stipend and we had fully half our meals free as part of our time with Movie Max which allowed us to bank the extra and splurge when it seemed worth it.

Cal assured me that every nickel I spent was worth it and would get a big chunk of it back in food and prizes. Instead of chicken chunks at the buffet, it was bacon wrapped filet, steaks, and lobster. They had sectioned off part of the sidewalk in the front and had a grillmaster with a huge barbecue trailer cooking for us and even taking orders and it was all part of our cover charge!

There were drawings for merchandise from three large tables heaped with Arsenal merchandise, team apparel, autographed items. There were tens of thousands of dollars worth of items and it was all going to be given away.

My big win for the day was a Yeti 32 Roadie Cooler with Arsenal colors and the logo. Joyce won a Weber outdoor electric grill also done up for Arsenal. I ended up with three Arsenal tumblers and one was an expensive as heck Yeti, yes all tumblers had different Arsenal logos. Jennifer won a complete set of Arsenal patio tableware including cups, four tumblers, and a pair of Arsenal beach chairs. No one went home with fewer than three or four items. All in all a perfect day and my father-in-law only had to haul Joyce's electric grill along with the rest of their prizes half a block to the other side of The Central Fountain. Their place is tiny, but what a location!

Ems won an autographed jockstrap 'previously worn'. UGH! Squatch won a high end designer handbag by some designer named Genevieve Chevalier. Shrug Never heard of her. But, yes it was done up for Arsenal and yes, the women all seemed to recognize the name. Yes, we gave him shit about it and yes, we all knew he would give it to Ems, but we could not let the opportunity pass us by.

Sunday, August 9, 2020

We had the day to ourselves until the vans were to pick us up at five for a magic show to start at six that evening so Jennifer and I walked around town a bit, did lunch at The Fountain, and came back mid afternoon to rest until the van picked us up.

The show 'Top Hat' was in the St. Ives Marketplace area, but a bit West and on the West side of the future tram line. I have to say I had a better feeling when it was clear it was both a magic act and a comedy show by 'Dudley The....' 'Magnificent' was the first word on a list but it was Xed out. Below that was 'Amazing' which was also Xed out. Next was 'Interesting' which was also Xed out. Finally it said, 'Guy with a hat'.

There were the usual card tricks and faux screw ups, and the show was extremely entertaining.

Ever seen a magician pull a rabbit out of a hat? Of course you have. Ever seen one pull a rabbit out of a vagina? I didn't think so. Apparently, Stephanie had been keeping one inside her vag and we never knew it! She was picked from the audience and yeah, the angle was from the side and the view was skewed and slightly blocked to allow the trick. Still. Funny in a crude, awfu, l and completely awesome way.

They had their own version of the guillotine trick and I was picked to participate. When I put my dick into the so called guillotine, what emerged was 12 inches long and very black. Of course they guillotined it and large amounts of blue 'blood' started gushing everywhere. Yes, I did a lot of faux screaming.

The evening was just another winner in a long line of winners.

Friday, August 14, 2020

We were told to shower up and be ready for a fancy dinner for our six-month anniversaries and that the shuttle van was going to pick us up at seven. Jennifer did her makeup light as usual which was my preference, but she did the same beautiful back then down hairstyle she had on our wedding day.

I smiled at her, giving her a compliment, "Jennifer, you are beautiful."

She smiled, then kissed me hot, "I love you so much, Joshua."

We were taken to The Windsor Room which was on the fourth floor of the same building The Fountain Sport Bar is on which faced The Central Fountain.

Our reservations were for eight o'clock which was just after sunset and it was soon apparent why. WOW what a place. Dinner arrived as the laser and light show started at The Central Fountain and the music from Bolero was playing on overhead speakers. Dinner was your choice of Prime Rib, Tenderloin, Chicken Marsala, Lobster Thermidor, or Eggplant Badrijani. I tried the prime rib and Jennifer went for the tenderloin. Great meal number a million at a location to stun you!

Eating dinner while having grand views of the choreographed musical laser light show at The Central Fountain. Only one word needed for the dinner: EPIC!

For two hundred bucks each it better be.

Saturday, August 15, 2020

Okay, sometimes something can be cool and completely awkward at the same time. Movie Max had told us to be ready at nine and we went to the airport for another one of their explicit video days.

Jay was the host for the day and greeted us with the usual, "Welcome couples. Today we have one of those where we will be doing sex videos but with a twist. Each of the couples will be on camera inside the plane which has a bed and each of you will officially join the mile high club. You will receive a PDF of a certificate and 'ID card' which you can display and carry or not according to your wishes.

Jennifer seemed to like the idea and I suspect her exhibitionist side came out a bit. We waited and were the fifth couple to go up in a converted and modified Bombardier Dash Eight turboprop which was big and wide enough to have a queen size bed and allow a four person video crew to do their jobs.

I talked it over with Jennifer who wanted it to be simple as she felt the movement might make things a bit more challenging so we agreed basic cowgirl start then finish in missionary position as she was not sure she could climax with all the external movement and may have to fake it.

Not the news every guy wants to hear, but I understand that the new location plus the movement might make things more difficult for her to have her climax.

We were in regular seats at the front for the takeoff and it took another ten minutes for them to fly to an area that was free of any commercial air traffic so they could fly as level and smooth as was practical. I was a bit surprised as Jennifer wanted to start without oral as she explained she preferred to freshen up below if I was going to go down on her and she had forgotten to do that. Yes, she is courteous. Also remember we will be making out pretty intensely so it was for her benefit also.

We got onto the bed and started making out. Jennifer seemed to warm up better when she laid back on the pillow and relaxed her hips. We did that for a while until she gently moved my hand over her slit and whispered 'softly'

I did as she asked, making soft circles around her clitoris and it did seem to do the job nicely and perhaps five minutes later, she was thrusting softly. We switched positions and I laid on my back with Mr. Happy sticking up. Jennifer reached back and adjusted me and slowly sank down on me then leaned in for some intense kissing until she leaned back and started soft pistoning action on my member. After several minutes of this, she increased her speed until I could feel her pulse lightly. She did manage an orgasm. She overhyped it a bit for the video people, but she did have a small one.

We flipped over with her on the bottom and finished with a soft intense session of missionary. She had whispered in my ear, 'finish' so I took that as my queue that she was not going to have a second climax so I made it clear when I was close and yeah, her second one was fake though she was still wet enough to enjoy it as I finished. We ended with the obligatory creampie and cooldown before we were handed some wet wipes and told to sit on towels until we landed.

That adventure did take up the day and we had dinner at another new place East of The Central Fountain simply named 'Bangkok' which unsurprisingly had very good Thai food.

Well! At the end of the day, we could say that we were officially members of the mile high club. We chose to not display our official certificate on our wall. File this one under glad I did it, but not advertising it because Movie Max is going to be doing enough of that for us in 2022.

Sunday, August 16, 2020

So, there was a day mostly for the women as we explored the high end shopping on London Avenue and the pedestrianized next street to the West which was named Chelsea Avenue. We had been on London Avenue a couple of times; once to see the show Wicked and the time we had dinner at Bronsen's Steakhouse with Ellen Montgomery. Today we were given a grand guided tour of all the high end shopping.

I'll shorten this one as I'm not into shopping, but we did hit Selfridges, Nordstroms, and Harvey Nichols which are all high end department stores. They were similar to the US and UK counterparts, but remember, clothing has less of a need here so those sections were smaller. Neither us had been on the street to the immediate West which was named Chelsea Avenue which was a parkway with a median that had been pedestrianized in the 1980s. Today, the median is fountains, gardens, and even one area of seating near the center that serves as a seating area for a very unusual food commons.

We were taken into a store that made shoes custom-to-order which cost four thousand dollars. They put all of the women's names into a hat to have a custom made pair of high end sandals made and Brianna won. Jennifer seemed okay with losing and later she explained she would be scared to death to wear shoes costing two thousand dollars.

The most interesting, or perhaps least boring stop was the Chelsea Somerset Jewelers where each of the women wore then posed for pictures with three massively expensive pieces of jewelry The first was a two million dollar blue diamond ring where the center stone was surrounded by pink diamonds. The second piece was a necklace with a huge blue sapphire surrounded by small 'regular' white diamonds worth around the same amount and finally a ruby and diamond tennis bracelet worth around a million and a half. I asked Jennifer if she liked them. She shrugged and said the same thing she said about the shoes: They were very nice but she would be scared to death to wear them.

Dinner was at the Chelsea Avenue version of a food court which featured several high end eateries like Wolfgang Puck and Carbone that had their own version of food counters and the 'food court' tables were actual wooden tables with nicer chairs, all under a very fancy 'glass' roof which for safety reasons I expect was anything but actual glass. I went for bacon wrapped filet from a place simply named 'Lisbon' and Jennifer went for some prime rib from a place named Perry's. Eighty dollar meals from a food court!? Welcome to Chelsea Avenue. We could have eaten for less, but Movie Max was paying so why not try the expensive stuff I would not usually pick?

I guess I'll end this part of the story here as we received an interesting phone call the next day.