The house is crowded.

Not that there are many occupants but this building is made for 3 and there are 4. As the forth, I sleep on the living room floor whilst the others occupy the beds upstairs.

I light the fire and make my bed out of sofa cushions and blankets I find lying around. Climbing into my make shift bed interests my favourite companion, Rufus, who curls up alongside me. We share the night watching the light of the fire dance around the room. With both the warmth of the flames and our warmth for one another, we drift off to sleep.

MMA is very intimate. Sometimes they’re rolling around on the floor, wrapping their legs around each other and whispering shit in their ear

I’m like GET HIM ….. or just fuck him, pick a lane lad

Honey (small dog) is very anxious, she barks at anything so to combat that noise her owner bought a buzzy collar. Don’t freak out, it’s not a shocky collar it just vibrates. So she barks and her collar goes nuts. Then there’s Marnie (big old concrete dog) who has a habit of just letting off singular barks, because why not. So honey is getting way better, she hardly barks for fear of the buzz. Marnie is too old to understand the buzz so still barks, resulting in honey being punished, being buzzed for marnies bark. I don’t know how to solve this, suggestions welcome.

I thought I saw something in you, guess I should wear my goggles more sheesh

Hello ladies and gentlemen

My parents used to take us to all sorts of museums when we were kids that I never really had too much of an interest in but now I’m old and can develop hobbies of my own I’m dying to go back to some of these places. 

Kennedy Space Centre, Florida – are you shitting me I’d give my left nut to be wandering around there again.

I was in Amsterdam over the weekend, I’ve written a small post to summarise but haven’t chosen an accompanying image so the post is on hold.

So what’s new

The last 747 was made this week, sad times for the world of middle-class airline travel. Those of you who prefer budget airlines can relax, the 737 is still very much in production and will be for years to come.

Fun fact, the American Air Force One is a 747 and has a twin, there are two of the things. I think it’s a logistical thing, they bang on about how there’s always one ready to roll at a moment’s notice giving time for the other one to be wheeled down to the local shell garage for fuel.

What else is going on

silly viktor that’s what’s going on

So Viktor Bout was and still kinda is a pretty cheeky little cunt who oiled the wheels of both the international arms and drug trade.

You take a group of angry people and watch them grow, take over industry in an area, which can be anything from the diamond trade to more political shit like the extradition market and so on. Anyway, that group builds up a pretty strong reputation and often comes a time when that reputation needs defending. That’s where Viktor comes in. Cash-heavy groups often struggle to launder money and get caught in the loop of the black market. Arms dealers, they’re more than equipt to sell you whatever you can afford and take your dirty cash and scrub it clean down the line. Viktor Bout sold weapons to anyone who had the funds, and these weren’t just a couple of containers of AK-47s these were ground-to-air missiles and anti-tank rounds so pretty quickly these smaller groups expanded rapidly and moved onto their end goals, which often went along the lines of ‘destroy the western world‘. Many of the groups that V sold to turned their sights towards the US so yeah Viktor had to go. He’s busted and spends a chunk of time in the box twiddling his thumbs.

Then Paul came along. Paul Whelan got himself arrested in Russia like a muppet and like most Americans arrested in the east, they’re accused of espionage. The interesting thing with P is he has all sorts of citizenships, even British which means he was likely a spy for more than one country. So the wheels started turning on a prisoner swap, the ol’ Viktor for Paul trade. Then Brittney shows up, caught with weed in Russia, tut tut. All eyes on this at the time, big pressure on the Biden administration to bring back B before they pull an Otto and ship her back damaged. (American, Otto Warmbier, released by the North Koreans in a vegetative state.) So Biden adds Brittney to the docket and starts asking what the Russians want in return.

Imagine you’re a kid in the playground and your crush is like if you get me that other kid’s pen I’ll be your girlfriend so you swap it with one of yours but all you have is really nice pens and that pen is shit so it’s like a completely uneven swap but you do it anyway for the girl, that’s basically what happened here.

The Russians kept Paul out of the swap and asked for Viktor in return for Brittney, which the US granted. Of course, we like Brittney and I’m sure her family are chuffed to have her home and it’s great to push the WMBA into the spotlight but Viktor has been described as one of the most dangerous men on this planet by the US. Having him back in Russia is a pretty solid blow for the Ukrainian war effort. Also, this whole dropping Paul thing has made me realise that the US may be running out of prisoner leverage, they simply have nothing that the Russians want anymore. Unless they want Roman Seleznev back but it’s unlikely and I doubt he’s worth many swip-swap coupons these days.

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booft