Skiing, Tobogganing & Snow Mobile Riding On A Snow Covered Planet

Getting back to the journeys of my family, set in the fantastic futuristic science fiction universe that I have created in my mind, read this post and the remaining before you proceed. Ok, all caught up? Now read on!

After the last visit, which wasn’t planned, we head on to our next destination which was planned and which is also a popular destination for a lot of humans who happen to love the snow and ice. Ice skating, skiing, snow mobile rides etc. All the winter activities & fun you can have on a large ski resort, but this is almost planet wide. This small planet, the size of humanity’s old home Earth’s moon, it has been part of the Human Federation’s list of external planets, meaning it’s protected so no aliens come and land on the planet; we have a small team on the planet that rotates and acts as guide for visiting teams. The forcefield generators, much like on our home planets, cover the entire planet as humans use a lot of the land for winter leisure.

So 2 days after the last planet’s visit we land on this planet called “Llavinus” which is in a 12 planet star system that also has 23 moons. So we meet with the people who organize the place; there’s a team of about 50 people who are stationed there and who rotate shifts every year or so. They tell us all the main spots for each activity like skiing, tobogganing, ice skating etc. We took the details from them and used our snow mobiles to head to the areas. We went ice skating and did some skiing before lunch time.

At lunch, the 8 older kids surprised me and my cousins that they would set the table and food for all of us. This was a surprise and so we happily agreed. They set up tables for all of us on this section in the snow near our ship. The elder looked on proudly as their grandkids were inviting them to be seated and then they lay table cloth that they replicate from the ship’s replicators. They they ask everyone’s orders and serve my parents, uncles & aunts first and get their drink orders. Up next 4 of them serve the smaller kids their lunch and then the 7 dogs, including my sister’s new puppy.

And then the kids take our orders and after we are served, they get food for themselves. The fresh, crispy air and the snow covered locale made it so enjoyable to sit and enjoy our lunch. Although this is a snow & ice planet, it wasn’t depressing looking and it got plenty of sunlight and it was beautiful. The lunch took almost 2 hours and as the sun was about to set, we decided to stay another day. We were informed that there would a mild snow storm during the night hours so we decided to watch some of it on the observation lounges on our ship. Before dinner that’s what we did during the evening with cups of coffee and/or hot chocolate. We continued to admire the snow fall until dinner time.

The next morning fresh from a good nights sleep we headed out on snow mobiles with most of the older kids on mini versions of it. The smaller kids and the elders rode along on the vehicles that some of the domestic robots drove and they followed pace with us. Post lunch we did some skiing until the night fell and then as it was a very pleasant night with no snow fall until later in the night, we had dinner out under the stars and retired to our quarters just before midnight. The snow did fall around us during the late hours of the night and well into morning. We bade goodbye to the organizers on the planet as our ship took off into orbit and then I gave the bridge robots the co-ordinates to the next destination.

Arsenal 2 Aston Villa 2

Arsenal had a late goal disallowed as they dropped two points in the Premier League title race after throwing away a two-goal lead at home to Aston Villa.

Kai Havertz thought he had found the winner with a minute left in normal time but the goal was disallowed after replays showed he handled Mikel Merino’s shot. The hosts had claimed a two-goal lead, with Gabriel Martinelli opening the scoring after taking advantage of some slack defending from Villa left-back Ian Maatsen to bundle home Leandro Trossard’s cross. The Belgian turned provider again for Arsenal’s second, as Havertz netted his 13th goal of the season from the former Brighton winger’s cross ten minutes after half-time. But Villa staged a stunning comeback, halving the deficit through Youri Tielemans’ header from Matty Cash’s cross on the hour mark, and equalising eight minutes later with a volley by striker Ollie Watkins.

The result leaves Arsenal six points behind leaders Liverpool in the Premier League, having played a game more than Arne Slot’s side. Villa move into seventh, two points shy of fourth-placed Newcastle in the final Champions League slot. William Saliba missed the draw in north London through injury and manager Mikel Arteta said he fears Arsenal could be without the France defender in the coming weeks. It is the sort of day that will have Liverpool fans convinced this is their title to lose. For an hour at Emirates Stadium it looked like Arsenal would produce a spirited response to Liverpool’s last -gasp victory at Brentford earlier in the day. Villa had barely laid a glove on their hosts until Tielemans fired his header past David Raya with 60 minutes played.

The Belgian nearly equalised moments later, only to see his effort from the edge of the box cannon against the post. If that was a warning for the Gunners, they did not heed it. Thomas Partey, playing at right-back as Jurrien Timber covered for the injured Saliba in central defence, left Watkins unmarked at the back post – and the England striker made no mistake by volleying home an equaliser. It was an eight-minute period that turned the game on its head, and left Arsenal stunned. The Gunners looked short on ideas in search of a winner but thought they had found it when Merino’s effort deflected past Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez in the 89th minute. But replays showed Havertz handled the ball, and it was chalked off following a video assistant referee (VAR) review.