Sam and I had been living at Tom’s for nearly a year now, me in the Annexe when I wasn’t away with work which had got busier as we kept soaring our birds into the near heavens and sometimes further. Tonight, I was at the Business Network function at a nearby local yacht club and presented on the topic Small is Beautiful: To The Moon about RocketFactory’s achievements. After the presentation, I mingled for a while, and the...

It was now three months since Tom and Sam had started dating and six weeks since I'd first hooked up with Pete. Tom and Sam were falling deeper in love and spending more time together, though mostly at his place as it was larger and had the spa. When I wasn't away with work, I was spending time at his place too - albeit in the annex at night and our friendship was growing too. While I was enjoying the attention, and actio...

After Christmas Day with my family and Boxing Day with his, we packed and headed off for the start of our next phase. Upon arrival at our first house-sit, he bowed formally, welcoming me to our new love-nest, something that hadn't happened at his place due to Wing getting me to help her prep it before she'd stuck it to The Pests at the airport. Weasel and family had driven us there from the airport and were looking on wor...

After Weasel dropped us at SeaTac and we’d boarded the plane, our flight home was typical for us: like our first flight together and the one to Vancouver, we quickly fell hard asleep snuggled into each other, albeit I think I beat Andy to the drop. We remained asleep the whole, long flight apart from food as we were now on a come down from Washup’s high. Walking to the luggage, we spied the café and unthinkingly made a be...

I always do my long runs before Saturday Breakfast at 9 AM. Depending on how far, means how early I get up. For my 40ks it means 3 AM. At 3AM, the house is silent apart from the fridge motor and the streets are deserted. Leaving the front door, all I hear is click of the clock and my feet hitting the ground; even the neighbour’s yapper is off duty! I’ve got neck problems, so I detect traffic better by listening than movin...

They say that space is truly silent, and in space, nobody hears you cry when you die. By the [human] 20th century, the know-to-them spacefaring races had settled into a form of stasis: some were on the up, some on the down, some were boots, some under the boot. But the Second Force of the Universe: Self-Interest and the Third: Apathy had collided and depleted the urge for vigorous conquest, and so, the Fourth: Stasis had...

I love Vancouver in the Winter – the snow-covered North Shore Mountains, the brisk breeze across the Harbour and Stanley Park to Run. When I’m there, which is a lot, I live in N. Van on the waterfront. Sometimes, I’ll get up very early and have a light pack ready from the night before. At 5 AM, the house is silent apart from the fridge motor and the streets are deserted. Leaving the front door, all I hear is the click of...

At the wedding, our families like us, had connected and exchanged contact details. Since then, they had chatted periodically, checking in on our happenings, and even met up for lunch once. However, this caused an enormous problem when the crew hit everyone up to film Family Time, where we met up with each family in turn. The families were rather reluctant, and Ellie had actually told the producer “After how you’ve treated...

Pete was five years younger than me and just got his degree. He was 2" taller, skinny, and probably the same weight. He had just got out of a relationship, and wanted relaxed fun which was good for me. My only concern was that he wasn't into exercise at all. I really wanted a guy that could keep physical and intellectual pace with me even as a friend. While I wasn't particularly fit by my standards due to work, I was stil...

I'm Kate, Sam's flatmate, and close friend since childhood. Sam and I became close friends in our first year at Area School. By the time we moved to secondary school, we could run down a hogget as well as any boy could. As most kids in our school, we both enjoyed going out hunting: if anything, more so than the boys as we really enjoyed the money from Possums, but the boys could carry and skin a Wallaby better than us. Bu...

The next two days passed quickly as we carried on working, playing and eating food and each other. Despite combined efforts at both houses, my Culinary Incineration wedding vows remained uncompleted. The Dinner Party takes up to eight hours to film and goes late into the evening as Sarah had discovered but managed to truncate due to the early flight out. We told the producers that they could pick us up from my place as we...

In Patagonia, we’d talked with Weasel and David about how to manage his return home. Weasel and Andy said that on return they were usually very tired. David said he sends the kids to the grandparents for a week to allow Weasel to reset. For the first two days, they would be alone, but he was on her clock. The next two, he went to the grandparents' and left her alone, so she had time to think and unwind. Then, she rejoined...

Love: According to literature, there are seven types of love. Love shared is not love divided. It is love multiplied. It was shortly after starting at Rocket Factory, that Sam and James had taken me [Kate] to The Dog [5k run] as it was nicknamed. They were intermittent attendees due to her study and work. During the pre-prizegiving drinks, Sam and James introduced me to the crowd, including Tom whom they casually knew. He...

After the CRJ landed in Santiago, I bid farewell to others including David and especially Terri who had decided that I was her little sister! But we knew that in a few weeks, we’d reconnect in Whistler and I quickly connected to my A350 for the long flight home. Andy had given me a spare Surface and I now had a Rapid Response logon. There were several emails I needed to answer so they could complete my onboarding. Once I...

I woke at 4 AM in Ellie’s spare room, feeling surprisingly refreshed despite all the drama and tedium mere hours ago. After a quick shower, I pulled on a red Icebreaker 250 zip-up, last night’s jeans, and a thick polar fleece as it was cold outside and would be colder at my destination, though my heart would soon heat up there. I was shocked to see Ellie, normally useless until daylight, up and had pancakes ready. I wonde...