Sights To See, An Alien Circus & Acrobats

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!

A few days gap, just to let my cousins and uncles, aunts catch up with some work and the kids to catch up with some classes online, and we were ready for some entertainment away from the spaceship. Now, everyone loves the spaceship and the suites and other areas are always lively during the day and evenings until the end of dinner but we also wanted to get to see more that the galaxy has to offer. One of my cousins had heard about this planet on which there were some alien races who had setup a type of circus and Cirque du Soleil of earth style entertainment. My cousin’s friend had gone there 3 years ago with a few of her family and friends after she got married and they enjoyed all the programs that the company there has for entertainment.

Now, even though humans, among some other highly advanced alien races, have abolished currency since we don’t use it or need it and haven’t for generations, some alien races including all the ones that run the entertainment on this planet, do need currency and entry for the programs and based on how many you visit will require a payment. This can be easily arranged as we have the ability to replicate a limited amount of currency depending on the area and gold coins and precious gems which mean so little to us, other than they look nice, but we can use it to pay for cooked food & drink or other things in smaller quantities but is also monitored so humans don’t accidentally misuse it.

So we gather the needed currency in the form of rectangular gold coins, which is what humans use in some of these alien planets and we also kept from gems with us to gift to some of the best servers and performers that we liked. On this planet we have a lot of alien races who perform and even more come to visit and be enthralled by the various acts. There are several arenas that we can visit and if you want to see all of the acts, it’s atleast 2 days with gaps for food and drinks. So once you confirm your tickets, you can go to the main entrance and pay for the tickets and give tips to the servers and performers as you see fit. The day before several of my aunts checked out videos of the performances and were excited as were most of the kids.

The rest of us were somewhat excited and we all decided to go for both the days. It was best that we leave the dogs behind in their respective suites. Anyways, we reached orbit of the planet, Quantara, and booked our tickets for the next two days. Some of the kids were impatient and really wanting to see the acts that it was all that they could talk about. The next morning post breakfast, we all went down to the planet and paid for the tickets in the gold. As humans cannot go off the ship without the forcefield or suits, we had all the kids and the elders walk inside the forcefield, flanked by robots and mobile forcefield generators, while my cousins & I used the suits and walk around more freely.

So there were magic acts, acts with wild animals, trapeze stuff, acrobats and unique things. The performers were from different alien races as were some of the animals. We went from one act to the other and sampled some of the snacks that they serve and the drinks, as in each between each of the acts as they had concession stands and tables and seats setup in between the different sections. The 35 domestic robots and my main robot are along with us and as we are 65 humans with 8 dogs (who are traveling in one of the robots or the other) our seats are setup in a huge section so we can easily get in within the confines of our forcefield without disturbing or inconveniencing other alien patrons. Ofcourse they do stare as they know that we are a bunch of humans with invincible technology.

Anyways, we sit down and enjoy the various acts, stopping in between to get some snacks and drinks from the stands – atleast the ones that show up as being harmless for humans to consume. The kids like the clown style shows and the animals ones. There are vicious looking creatures that the tamers have trained to do a few tricks and everyone is wowed by them. There are sea creatures that do some tricks as well and we are blown away by their sheer beauty and size. We end our day by 7pm our time and we go back to the ship for rest, dinner and sleep. The next day it’s more of the same but we spend most of the time at the Cirque du Solelil style act, with beautiful music, exoticly dressed alien performers and complex acrobatic moves that is set to the music. It lasted for 4 hours and we could have stayed for many more.

Once the show was done, we gave away most of the tips to the acrobats and showered them with praise and applause. It was now time to get back to the ship. We said our goodbyes to the organizers and then headed back to our ship in orbit. I ordered the robots on the bridge to take us out into space and towards our next destination as I changed to pjs. Shawny seemed to have enjoyed everything as much as we did. So did the other dogs. I walked back with Shawny and Junior on my heels as I joined a couple of my cousins on the way to the dining section of the ship. As I get my first beer of the night and join a table of my cousins and reach for a snack, I get an alert that a couple of alien ships who also left orbit seem to be following us.

I quickly sit at a console in the dining area/bar where my cousins and I were along with the dogs. We were still close enough to the star system so we were at impulse speed only. I got a quick scan taken on the two alien ships that I didn’t recognize – these were not friendly looking or a species that is known to us. If I were in a military ship I would stay around and find out exactly what they were but I am in a personal ship with my extended family. The scans show me that their ships had only 1/3rd of the speed of our ship and so I laugh out loud, and once were were out of that star system, I gave the order to increase our speed to warp 8 and let the two alien ships eating our stardust! That done, we went on with our dinner and enjoyed a nice evening.

My favourite Toys & Games Growing Up

What was your favourite toy or game growing up?

Hmmm once toy or game while I was growing up. I dunno. I had a bunch of toy cars that I loved. I played that a lot. I had a nice little collection which was the envy of many. I also remember we got this Knight Rider KiTT model from KFC due to some tie up that they had and that was a limited collection item and I managed to get one while most of the kids at my school did not get one.

When I was 9 or so, my dad bought my sister and me this Atari console with a few games that my sister and I enjoyed quite a lot. When we moved back to India, some of my cousins loved to play the games as well. I do remember enjoying many hours of the games, especially bowling and some fighter pilot game. Man, they bring me such memories.

But spending more time with my cousins where all of us could play together were ones I enjoyed the most. Games like Monopoly or we used to have a General Quiz game where our oldest cousin would be the quiz master and he would ask the questions and we were try to win. I think almost all the time I won because I was up to date on my General Knowledge. Great memories from the years gone by!

Prompt from Journaling Prompts from The Coffee Monterz Co . Com

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.

Going Back In Time To Simpler & Happier Days

If you could pick a year, would you rather go back in time, stay in the present, or visit the future?

Sometimes I wish I could back in time and correct a lot of wrong choices and go back to a better time when my family lived in Kuwait. I love my childhood and think my sister and I had it really good. We had a cozy and protected childhood, in a small 2 bedroom and 1 bathroom apartment. We lived in a building almost filled with a lot of friends and “uncles & aunties” who were close friends with my parents. Some of them are still friends of ours. For 11 years of my life it was safe and good. I wouldn’t mind going back in time and experiencing that again.

My mom’s older brother and my aunt, his wife, also lived in Kuwait and they would get together with us during the weekends. We would either go out or have dinners together in either their flat or ours. My cousin would come along when I was 7 and then for the next few years she too would be with us. Dinners during the weekend was some of my favourite memories. It was usually us sitting around the coffee table with the tv on with either a movie or some tv show of the 80s on. My sister and I would sit on the ground with my uncle while my aunt, mum & dad would be on the sofas.

Dinner on these kinds of days were wither KFC chicken or shawarma. My aunt was the only vegetarian so she would have a veg burger and fries or falafel and wraps. We would drink Pepsi and have a nice family time in. I love those days and those memories are ones that I will always treasure.

Prompt from Journaling Prompts from The Coffee Monterz Co . Com

Spaceship To The Rescue : Water For Huge Alien Creatures

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 we leave the last planet we visited, we are on cruise mode for a few days. This was planned as the kids also need to catch up with their studies and classes plus some of my cousins and uncles needed to catch up with their work and get connected with their offices back in the home planet. Hence we decided that we would use the next 5 days to do that. I would spend mornings from 10 to 6 on the bridge, Shawny by my side, studying the reports gathered on the way, doing long range scans and giving orders to the bridge crew of robots.

In the evenings though we all got together in the lounge areas and ate snacks and drank till dinner time. The kids would usually be in the games area after their school work and playing all sorts of games until we call them for dinner. They would sit together and have their big meals while the elder sat nearby and talked until they got hungry too. Usually it would be 8:30 pm or so by the time we all got our dinner and chatted with a few beers till like 11 or 12 and went to bed.

After 5 days by before I went to bed, I got a message from a colleague from Federation ship, someone who I had worked with, asking if I had a fem moments to spare. I said yeah and so we video conferenced. After some pleasantries, he said that while the ship he was on was checking, my ship and I were within range of a desert planet in a star system that had just 3 planets, with a few moons. The desert planet, which has 3 moons itself, had very little life other than worms, some crab like creatures, some vegetation in patches and a large herbivorous animal that feeds on these patches of vegetation.

So he tells me that these creatures were on the verge of extinction since the waters in their areas dried out and it as a chance encounter by a Federation ship that stopped them from being extinct – the ship had some crew draw the lake of water using our advanced tool & technology towards the tribes of these creatures, and thereby saving them. They have since thrived but every 2 year this has to be done again. Since I was close, could I do it? I said sure and changed the heading to this planet which we were only 5 hours away at warp 8 speed. We arrived in orbit during the night time when everyone was asleep.

The next morning at breakfast I announce to everyone the favour I was gonna do for that colleague. Everyone gathered at the bottom deck to get into the vehicles to get us to the surface and we drive to the area that contains the lake and help the flow of it towards the tribe of the giant creatures. As we sit back and watch, the flow of water increases to a great extent and then we drive towards the tribe. The animals look very formidable with two tusks and an outer body shall that covers most of their body, kinda like a turtle. The water flow increase cause the animals to go towards the fake river and they begin to drink.

Satisfied that the work is done I see that it is almost lunch time. So we head back to our ship and after a quick change of outfits, I quickly contact my colleague and confirm that the work is done. I join my cousins and others for lunch.

A 5 Storey Building And What I Would Do With It

If you could have a 5 storey building all to yourself, what would each storey be for?

I have thought about this a few times. Let’s say I get rich enough, like a few billion in the bank account. My thought is to buy or build a very high end luxury building. So let’s say that it is a 5 storey building, but it is huge and spreads out on a huge lot. Which means that I can have apartments that are the size of houses but across instead of up and down 2 or 3 floors.

You know what I mean; imagine the same number of rooms as in a large house with say a living room, dining room, kitchen, pantry, laundry room, a family room/tv room, a large den/home office, a powder room and like 5 bedrooms each that have large walk in closets an attache 4/5 piece bathrooms. Excellent luxury, nice furniture and tv sets, computers etc. And large balconies where you can spread out with patio furniture and fake grass. And there are 3 apartments on each floor bringing the total to 15 such large apartments.

And what would I do with this large beautiful building? Simple, I will have my extended maternal side of the family all live in these 15 apartments. Each will get these apartments so they can live in relative luxury and comfort and we can have weekly get togethers of fun drinking and eating great food while enjoying every one’s company. Fuck let’s a two common storeys for game rooms, a gym, a couple of bar lounge areas and dinning room for group gathering and even a couple of movie rooms. That’s what I would do with that much real estate.

Prompt from Journaling Prompts from The Coffee Monterz Co . Com

An Abandoned Research Station ON A Snow Covered Moon

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!

So after the exciting and beautiful scenes under the oceans where we spent almost 2 days exploring the waters and admiring the giant creatures, we boarded the spaceship and before we had dinner, we left orbit and the spent the night and the next day in space, as we were headed to our next destination. However just around noon the next day, while I was on the bridge at my controls, I notice that we detect a weak signal coming from a star system that was charted decades ago and came back as being devoid of most type of life. A couple of my cousins come to the bridge and I ask them to check it out.

Sensing that this could be interesting, I give the command to change our heading and the ship is now heading towards that star system. As we go for lunch, the 3 of us inform the rest of the family that we are headed towards this stars system to investigate the signal. Initially I wasn’t expecting to beam down to the planet to check the source of the signal but as we finish our lunch and we approach the source, I was getting ready to beam down with big robot and a few military ones. However most of my cousins are now gearing towards beaming down as well.

As I go back to the bridge, it is found that the signal is emanating from a snow and ice moon – one of a few that go around this large planet. Quick scans find no spaceships or life on the moon as well as the others. On the planet we find very early stages of microbial life on it but nothing else. This is exactly what the report from the previous exploration of this area of space stated. However it seems that this signal wasn’t reported back then and it looks like the signal was activated very recently – by what I don’t know. So once we are in orbit, I decided to beam down with all my cousins, our domestic robots that transport the pets and all the military robots, leaving just the bridge robots along with our elders and the kids on the ship.

The moon is covered in snow and it looks like a catastrophic non-natural event changed the moon’s climate and over a period of time it has settled to this light snow falling almost on a steady rate. We find the source of the signal is a large alien building, the only one we can detect on the entire moon. We beam right near the entrance and then scan the building. We go in through the entrance that we are easily able to break open and search the ground level. We find the signal source and I have to decide if I should leave it on or shut it off.

We connect to the computers that are running the building and soon discover that the moon was a research station & residential for an alien race who built this building on this moon nearly 2000 years ago. An experiment that they did went horribly wrong and that changed the climate of this moon. Luckily except for some plants and trees which weren’t really affected, there were no animal life on the moon. We spend a few hours exploring the building, moving around in smaller groups of 6 and then decide to beam back up. Once on the bridge, I leave a marker for the Starfleet like organization about this discovery, so they can send a team to fully investigate the building and do more research on it.

That done, I join the 4 or 5 cousins who were on the bridge with me and we move to join the rest. We take off the protective suits and change into more comfortable clothing and grab drinks and food before sitting own to eat and enjoy some long conversations. Our ship is headed out into space again.

Shawny, Chocolate & Lollipop

Blog about the type of pet you dream of owning, but never have. Share why you haven’t.

While I love several types of cats and several breeds of dogs and would love to have more pets, if I could choose, I would just want my two cats and dog back. Sure a new puppy that is a Lab (yellow, brown or black) would be awesome, or a German Sheppard or a Dalmatian. Or a couple of Corgis or maybe a couple of Persians. But I want my two cats Chocolate & Lollipop – a brother & sister pair of cats my family brought home when I as 12 – and Shawny, my Golden Retriever – who I got as a puppy when I was 18.

I miss them, they were part of my family. I wish I could go back in time and grab them when they were alive and well and bring them home with me. Since I don’t have a pic of them 3 together, I got AI prompts to create a picture for me and it looks so good. I wish it were real.

Prompt from October Pet Blogging Prompts at Blogpaws.org

Five Horror Movies From The 1980s That I Remember Watching With Cousins

Poltergeist is a 1982 American supernatural horror film directed by Steven Spielberg and Tobe Hooper and written by Steven Spielberg, Michael Grais, and Mark Victor from a story by Spielberg. It stars JoBeth Williams, Craig T. Nelson, and Beatrice Straight, and was produced by Spielberg and Frank Marshall. The film focuses on a suburban family whose home is invaded by malevolent ghosts that abduct their youngest daughter.

Fright Night is a 1985 American supernatural horror film written and directed by Tom Holland, in his directorial debut. The film follows teenager Charley Brewster (played by William Ragsdale), who discovers that his next-door neighbor Jerry Dandrige (Chris Sarandon) is a vampire. When no one believes him, Charley decides to get Peter Vincent (Roddy McDowall), a TV show host who acted in films as a vampire hunter, to stop Jerry’s killing spree.

Child’s Play is a 1988 American supernatural slasher film directed by Tom Holland, from a screenplay he co-wrote with Don Mancini and John Lafia, and a story by Mancini. The film stars Catherine Hicks and Chris Sarandon with Brad Dourif as Chucky. Its plot follows a widowed mother who gives a doll to her son, unaware that the doll is possessed by the soul of a serial killer.

The Fly is a 1986 American science fiction horror film directed and co-written by David Cronenberg. Produced by Brooksfilms and distributed by 20th Century Fox, the film stars Jeff Goldblum, Geena Davis, and John Getz. Loosely based on George Langelaan’s 1957 short story of the same name and the 1958 film of the same name, The Fly tells of an eccentric scientist who, after one of his experiments goes wrong, slowly turns into a fly-hybrid creature. The score was composed by Howard Shore and the make-up effects were created by Chris Walas, along with makeup artist Stephan Dupuis.

A Nightmare on Elm Street is a 1984 American supernatural slasher film written and directed by Wes Craven and produced by Robert Shaye. It is the first installment in the A Nightmare on Elm Street  franchise and stars Heather Langenkamp, John Saxon, Ronee Blakley, Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger, and Johnny Depp in his film debut. The film’s plot concerns a group of teenagers who are targeted by Krueger, an undead child killer who can murder people through their dreams, as retribution against their parents who burned him alive.

Chasing The Large Alien Ocean Creatures Under Water

Well, after your read all the previous ones like this one before you understand the contest of this post. Read it? Ok, welcome back. So after the visit to the planet with the furry blue friendly creatures that loved to be petted by us, we get back to the ship and then rest up before dinner. Having changed from our protective suits to pjs and more comfortable night clothes, we gather once again in our dining areas and quickly order drinks and starters. As I sit back and munch on an onion ring and sipping my beer, my mom asks me if we can go to a planet that has majestic ocean creatures so we can take the vehicles that can also go underwater and enjoy seeing the marine life.

Now the reason she asked me this is that a couple of years ago, we had actually gone on a trip for 3 months where I was on a mission and my parents, sister, brother-in-law and their kids joined me along with 2 of my maternal uncles, their wives and daughters (my cousins), who live very near us. It was a small family trip that lasted for 3 months and we used a much smaller spaceship. One of the planets we visited during that 3 month mission was a large planet that was mostly water and we took a large vehicle that can travel on land and under water and explored some of the ocean and marveled at the large fish.

As soon as my mother said this, an uncle and aunt light up and chime their enthusiasm about the idea. Soon others are sharing their opinion and the two cousins who were on that trip tell the rest of my cousins about how much they’d love to experience that again. Seeing the consensus, I smiled to myself as I had already noted two large water planets that have huge fish and water mammals in their oceans. It seemed like a good idea and one was just 2 days away. So I tell them that we can have this planet as our next destination.

The next day, I spend some time with the very large vehicle at the back of the section, which we haven’t used yet. This one will seat all of us including the domestic & military robots. I make sure that it is all setup and has enough seats & space for us all, which it does and have enough space for 20 more people. I then have it moved to the front of the exit on that deck and then show some of my cousins what we are going to use for the next planetary visit.

We reach the planet, which is one of several in a large star system, and land the ship on one of the continents. This planet has seen regular visitors, mostly humans but some other alien races have come here to see the wonder of life on it, but on this day it’s just us. I get everyone to get into the large vehicle and have them settle in before taking in the driver’s seat and then I drive the vehicle into the waters. The roof and floor then retracts for the most part and we have transparent material all around so we can see the creatures move above and below as well on the side.

We go about the ocean and marvel at the plants and the fish as well as the mammals that live underwater. Huge whale like creatures swim to our sides and follow us for a while. We see so many fish and pass by octopus and jellyfish like creatures the size of a house swim so quickly and I give chase for a while. We see shark like creatures and dolphin like creatures but most are so huge. We have drink and food replicated and enjoy our lunch as we continue chasing these creatures.

We enjoyed it so much that we barely noticed that it was almost nighttime. We go back to the land and into our ship so we can change and have a nice dinner. Bedtime beckons but the kids are so exited that we decide to spend the next day exploring the waters again. Even Shawny and the other dogs seem to enjoy the sights so much.

Next We Visit A Land Locked Planet With Gentle Blue Furry Creatures

Ok, so time to get another of these posts going to explore the futuristic time going – read this last one an then come back. An next up is a personal favourite, one I have visited before but is always great to visit anytime. Also most of my family members haven’t been here. It’s a very unique planet that gets very little light from it’s star/sun on one half due to tidal locking but is lightened by the light of 9 moons. The planet is also mostly ocean. It is only 20 percent land and the rest is clear, blue oceans and seas. And it is a different colour of blue.

We land on a large patch of what looks like grass but it is a faded maroon in colour. The land stretched out in front of us but in the distance we can see what looks like giant mountains. On the left of us we can see bushes and trees. Odd looking leaves and what we assume are flowers. The air is breathable but the oxygen content is a bit lower which could cause us to get tired easily so we keep the helmets and oxygen supplies on.We walk a bit further and look up – in the early evening sky we can see that the planet has curently 7  moons….that look so gorgeous upon that evening sky. The other two moons are barely visible.

The grass flows in the wind like a river and the alien birds make their shrill noise as they glide in the evening light. The birds are small in body yet have these huge wings that seem to be almost 3 times their size. This sight fascinates us so much that we almost do not notice the huge animals that have wandered near us. As the night time descends we can see that the animals are luminescent and that the night time glow is gorgeous to see. Furry, large yet gentle creatures with multiple legs walking near us and they don’t seem to be too worried in our presence. They keep looking for things to eat and its the leaves, the bushes and shrubs near us that they seem to be more attracted to. We must be in their feeding grounds.

All the creatures seems to be herbivores and they also seem to like a fruit that falls from the trees in the area. One animal walks near me to get to the fruit and I run my hands on it’s thick, fluffy fur. Even with the gloves of my suit I can feel that it’s among the most softest fur ever. The animals seems to like the rubbing effect and approach even further to each of us. Like large, long dogs who have been petted for the first time and loving it, they come back for me and soon all 4 of us are running our hands through the soft backs and bellies of these gentle creatures. After it gets too dark, even with 4 moons lending light to where we stand, it gets harder for us to see. So we bid goodbye to these lovely animals and let them continue their feed as we get back to the ship.

When A Terrible Movie Reminds You Fonder Times From Your Past

For some reason I was reminded of some good ole fun times spent with my younger cousins who were in India on vacation from the UK. I rewatched Batman & Robin a couple of days ago and it reminded me We went to see the movie at theatres back in 1998. It was 4 of us  – Harish, Aswin & Sree. Just us guys and we watched the movie is this theatre which has since had a full renovation but back then it was a dump and there were a couple of huge rats running around.

Anways, I remember that Aswin & Srree spent a few days in my parents home in Thrikkakara around early 1999 I think. I was not working or studying at that time having just completed a 2 year computer diploma course and was awaiting the results of the exams. So while they were at my house, we spent almost all of our time playing video games on my old computer and watching cartoons. Anways, I just remember enjoying my time with them playing a bunch of games like some F1 & Indy car race games, some football game demo that only allowed you to play USA vs Russia (doh!), some funny cartoony race game called Wacky Wheels and lots & lots of DOOM!

And at night they would come to my room and I’d switch the ac on. I slept on one end and Aswin on the other with then 7 year old Sree in the middle. And we’d tell jokes and crack each other up until late night and we feel asleep. And it was a fun time.

Leaving Earth’s Orbit And The Solar System To Head Out Into Space

Well, this is a different story. Please read this post over here which is the first part of this story. Ok, now that you have caught up, let me tell you about the ships. These ships like I previously mentioned are the sizes of large cities with decks after decks of living & working quarters on each. There are movie theatres, recreational halls and room, medical bays, labs etc. Also there are options for extended families to live in suites next to each other so you can also have some common areas for large dinners and games. Or if you just want to chill out and hand out with each other, large rooms where you can just lounge or lie and talk.

So like I mentioned I am in the the last wave to leave the earth in one of the large city ships as part of the final wave. After my hover vehicle docks with the city ship I am assigned to, I take the pups and head to the section where my extended family is. Once you enter the section, it takes you to one of the common areas that has lounge areas. We have all these suites that are like large apartments in these sections and I have one suite with a large living room with two bedrooms on either end. I sleep in one bedroom and my parents sleep in the other. Next to our suite is a bigger suite with 4 bedrooms – for my sister & brother-in-law and my two nephews and niece. Our cousins and their spouses, uncles and aunts all have their own suites.

So when I enter this section and the lounge area where some of my cousins and relatives are sitting. I show them the pups and everyone starts to pet them. I quickly go to my suite and change into evening pjs and a teeshirt and come back to the rest. Just then we get the alert on the intercom systems that the earth is free of animals, birds and humans as our latest scans confirms. All that are left are insects and vermin like rats. In exactly 1 hour the final ships including ours will break orbit and leave the solar system for the new star system. So we sit around and talk about what we will miss on earth and then it’s time for dinner. Just as we sit down for dinner, the ships leave orbit and head off into space.

We then settle down eating lots of food and we make sure that all the pets including my new two puppies are fed. This dinner goes on for almost 3 hours with some drinking involved and lots of jokes and laughing. The puppies now with full bellies are watching me and the rest talk. Sometime after the 3 hours are up, everyone heads to their suites to sleep. My parents and I walk with the puppies to our suite and I say good night to my dad and mum. The two girl puppies walk next to me feeling very sleepy. I had managed to get one extra bed to be added to my bedroom. So I pickup the two pups and place them on the additional bed and then have the lights turned off and then get into my bed. I had petted the pups for a while before I got into my own bed and then it was sleep time.

However, before I fell completely asleep, I felt the two pups jump onto my bed and snuggle under my sheets to get to sleep next to me. I was pretty sure that they would do so and I was happy as I drifted off to sleep.

Into A Brighter & Better Future : Humanity Leaves Earth

I often come back to this post I wrote back in November of 2020 in which I wrote about a dream I had during the uncertainty of the pandemic, that humans from the far future visited us and offered to take all of us back with them to the future of well over 2000-3000 years from now. So now that we are all in our spaceship that is under my piloting and command, with everyone beamed up in their living units, it’s time to guide them to the food & drink replicators. It’s just about 6:30 pm as everyone is beamed in, so I tell everyone to get some snacks and a cool drink or coffee/tea and to also feed the pets.

So everyone orders some snacks or the other – cutlets, samosas, chicken fingers, French Fries, puff pastries, tater tots, chicken popcorn etc and drinks like colas or milkshakes or frappuccinos or fresh juices  – and feeding the pets with cool water & vanilla or strawberry milk and dog chow. Shawny gets cold strawberry milk with real strawberries cut up in them and some mix treats of beef chunks. She hungrily gobbles it up and drinks the milk, slowly enjoying the cold milk and chunks. Since our units are locked off to filter off all the virus, we have to all connect via the video consoles available in each room With everyone satiated for the while – as we need bigger meals due to the food being replicated rather than real food – I check with everyone and they are all settled in.

As we run through the rules and then checking with our future humans, I co-ordinate with my spoc and we set off into space, traveling several times the speed of light. Everyone says goodbye to the earth with some sadness but also excitement about what awaits us. So much technology at our fingertips and life is so much more easier now. By 9 pm everyone is hungry again and so we all settle at our respective dining tables in our units and eat a big dinner. My parents are having fried rice with some chicken and salads as my dad drinks a cold lager, while my mother drinks a strawberry & banana milkshake on my recommendation. I drink a stout and chow down a large sausage, bacon & mushroom pizza while Shawny eats a big meal of rice mixed with chicken & carrots. With more cold milk in a big bowl next to her.

By 11 everyone is feeling sleepy so I tell them to get to bed. My parents get nightwear from the cloth replicator in their bedroom and then lie down. I go and check on them and say good night. My mom calls out the command to have the lights switch off. I check with my sister and her family and the kids are all in bed, followed by my sister & brother-in-law. A quick video call with the rest and I am sure that they all in bed, including the pets. I am now changed into my pjs and I get into bed, as Shawny climbs in and lies near my feet. I then command the ship’s system to release the gas into the rooms to put us all into a deep sleep for atleast 8 hours, while it also pumps in pure fresh air along with nutrients in gaseous form that are all good for you, fixing our health as we sleep.

Half asleep, I look at Shawny struggling to stay awake and softly wagging her tail that thumps on my leg with each wag. Soon that too stops as she is softly snoring while in a deep sleep and my eyes close as I have a smile on my face and I too fall into a deep slumber for 8 hours, knowing my whole family is cozy in bed and safe while traveling to the distant star system. The auto pilot has long taken over and we head out into space along with several other small & large ships, carrying humans & animals into a brighter & better future.

Shawny Would Have Been 30 Years Old Today If Dogs Lived Long Lives

Today marks the birth anniversary of my late pet Golden Retriever Shawny. She was born on September 1st back in 1994 and I got her to my home when she was 45 days old. If dogs lived long lives that would make her 30 years old. In an alternate universe dogs and cats live long, long lives and she would still be with me now. I was 18 when I got Shawny. My family – dad, sis & I – had decided to get a dog after I started speaking about getting one for the past 2-3 years. I found a breeder in Kaloor who had 20 dogs and his golden retriever female had just given birth to a litter of 8.

My cousin sister Raakhee and I went by car to pick her up. He opened a kennel door and out came the two puppies followed by their mom, who the breeder’s wife quickly ushered indoors. Now I was torn between selecting between the male & the female puppy until this point in time. The decision was made for me by the female puppy.She came running towards me as soon as she was out in the open – straight for me and not my cousin or the breeder who was standing near me or the boy but me – and started playing with my shoe laces. She was feisty and playful and was a lot of fun. I fell in love instantly and picked her.

We brought Shawny, my puppy, home and we were inseparable except for the 9 months (spread over a year) that I was in Bangalore and the 6 months (again with lots of visits in between over 10 months) that I was in Calicut. I still love and miss her and she will always be in my heart till the day that I die. I couldn’t have asked for a better best friend.

The Interior Of The Futuristic Spaceship Of My Dreams

Once again we are going back to my concept of the futuristic world that I wish me & my all my family members & friends are a part of, instead of right now. And I remind you that my family (dad, mom, sister & brother-in-la, nephews, nieces, cousins, uncles, aunts & pets) are all traveling through the galaxy to see various alien planets & moons and the sights and alien animals & landscapes and enjoy each other’s company as we do so. So I have booked a spaceship for this purpose and we have several suites that we can stay in/sleep in during the night and enjoy the common large living & recreational areas of the ship during the day and evening time.

So what about about these suites? Well, it works like large apartments within the living quarters area of the ship. Since I could do the designing to customize the ship to our family’s requirements, I was able to make it fit our needs. So for example the first suite as we enter the level, is for my parents & me along with Shawny and our domestic robots. We have a large living and dining area along with sections for computer panels etc. We also have two large bedrooms; one for my parents and one for me. Shawny ofcourse sleeps on my bed.

Similarly for the rest of my family I have customized the suites; like my sister & brother in law have 3 kids – my two nephews and 1 niece – as well as 2 dogs. So they need 4 rooms as the kids all get their own rooms. For each of the families, I have set it up so they all have some privacy and have their own rooms within their suites. Ofcourse we have gym areas, a couple of pools, some game areas, dining sections, a bar area or two and a medical bay. We have a few doctors in our family and they can use the bay to conduct regular checkups on us all.

Now for the bedrooms – we have these huge bedrooms with a large comfortable bed, a desk with a computer console inbuilt into it here you can also use your own personal device. Tv screens and a replicator wardrobe section built into the wall on one section and a food & drink replicator on another section. Plus a couple of sofas in one section of the room. In the attached bathrooms, you also have a large bathroom with a tub, sink/mirror, an enclosed shower and toilet with a separated enclosed shower and toilet section for your dog/cat. Very comfortable and cozy.

Touring An Alien Planet That Has Large Dinosaur Like Creatures

This is a continuation of this post over here where I wrote about my ultimate day dream about us living in a futuristic time set about 5000 years from now where humankind and our animals have left the earth far behind and settled on 10 beautiful large planets and 7 moons set in a different star system. And we ofcourse have smaller colonies around the galaxy and travel between the stars in various starships – big and small but luxurious and thoroughly safe and secure for us – and no one is poor, sick or dies in an accident.

Anyways, following the events of the last post, the next day we all wake up and slowly get through the morning. Some take a shower immediately and post breakfast head to the common areas of the ship while some stay in their quarters, lazing over breakfast and a couple of cups of coffee and tea. The pets are fed and people are checking the news from the home planets & moons as well as the various colonies. After I have my breakfast and take a shower, I head to the bridge along with Shawny, and check the reports from the ship’s sensors. I then check our heading and other reports – while several of my cousins and the kids step in from time to time.

During lunch I announce to everyone that we have almost 2 days to reach our first destination – a planet where we have a team of around 150 humans already there, who are studying the large dinosaur like creatures on the planet as well as a few other animals and fish. Everyone is excited as we have all learned about the dinosaurs from our past on earth from school and even seen animations of them but this is something else. So we spend the day just talking and eating, while the kids play in the game rooms. The next day we have most are connecting to their work back at home and the kids have a couple of hours of studying remotely, before they play.

Before dinner I check our ETA and then while we sit down to eat I let everyone know that we will reach the dino planet in a few hours and will be in orbit while we are sleeping. So the next day all excited everyone gets up and see the planet through the view screens. We get ready and then I land the ship on the planet and we all head to the bottom deck where the vehicles are – all 8 of them. We all board in the vehicles –  human, dogs and robots – and head to the rendezvous point where the humans studying these creatures have set up their ships and base camp. We get the lowdown from our guides and then we head out to see these creatures.

These creatures are most large and starting to notice the bunch of humans, much smaller in size to them, zipping around on these futuristic vehicles. Ofcourse they aren’t able to harm us with the forcefield and protective weaponry that we have but we rarely have to defend ourselves. We watch and follow a herd of herbivorous alien-dinos as they feed on various plants. Then there are fights between giant alien-dinos. Also huge monstrous meat eating dinos attack other dinos and feast on the dead bodies. At lunch time we take a long break up a peak and have lunch.

Lunch done we continue long until the local sun has set and it’s time for us to get back to our ship. Everyone goes to the tables and food is ordered on the various replicators. As we drink and eat our meals, the kids regal us with their impressions of the dinos and some of us talk about the things we saw. We go to bed as the next day is more of the same. In total we spend 3 days touring the various areas of the planet until we have seen most of the major attractions that the planet has to offer. I thank the team on the planet and bid them farewell as I take our ship back into orbit and then our into space for our next destination which is just 29 hours away.

I Mourn For Three Pups

Last week my sister and her family decided to have their beloved pet, Barfi the Pug put down on the advice of the vet. Barfi has had health problems for a while. He lost most of his eyesight a couple of years ago and then for the past 2 years all of it. Recently he also lost his hearing and had been suffering from fits. He has been to the vet many weeks this year. He also refused to eat beyond a little scoopful for the last few days of his life. He knew it was time a while ago but I think all of us thought we still had some more time with him.

I remember when Barfi was brought to my sister’s apartment back in 2012. He was so tiny and it as my niece how named him Barfi, as it was the name of the first movie she had watched in a theatre. Barfi was lord of their family, as he was the center of attention. He loved it when people came to visit them, as he always felt that everyone was there to see him. He would do this happy yelp of a bark, which meant that he was really happy. I have babysat him a few times and he was always happy to see me. I guess I was part of his pack.

Just like my dog Shawny and Shawny Junior, now I mourn for him. We will miss you a lot Barfi.