Lord Ipsqueeck's Adventures: the yearly voyage to The Efteling

 Hello everyone, here I am again, and this time I bring the tale of our yearly journey to the Efteling themepark in The Netherlands.

 

Like always, we stayed in the hotel, now renamed Wonder Hotel, as that means more park time for me!

 

Totally reworked, the hotel looks nothing like I did last year I must say, it is gorgeous.

 

Making use of the fact we could enter the park an half hour earlier, we immediatly went into the Carnaval Festival ride.  Mommy and Daddy went into the Vogel Rok after that, and we did some swirlies in the Sirocco.

 

Moving to the Anton Pieck Plein, I rode an old carrousel.

 

Next we went to the Volk of Laaf, where as I decided to take a long time to enjoy the park, I went on the snail Monorail as such for a nice view over this part of the park.  And of course I just had to check out the slides over there.

 

As we went to the Sprookjesbos next, I realised I really need to have a talk with the old folks.  I'm five, stop putting me on those musical mushroom's like a little kid!   

 

But it is also a lovely place to enjoy lunch surrounded by the various fairy tales, like the Six Swans which features a short boat ride as well.  And nothing beats dark rides in my opinion, those are the best attractions one can find for certain!

 

Talking dark rides, my next stop was the Symbolica, where you can choose one of three paths to go through this palace of fantastical events. 

 

On a bit of a more rough ride, we went to the dual family coaster Max and Moritz, and even though we had a short technical problem before launching, this remains great and speedy fun. 

 

Before hopping on board again for a trip through 1001 nights in the Fata Morgana! 

 

But then it was time for one of those important things of the day, food!  While I enjoyed some fries, daddy had taken one of those grilled burgers from Lyckebaert while refilling his Danse Macabre cup.

 

With a full stomach, I was ready for my next task, namely to learn how to drive.  According to daddy, I drive like mommy, honking all the time and gesturing, but he told me to make sure not to tell her... 

 

Apparently, an acquintance of daddy was present, as he suddenly pointed and said "hey look, I found Waldo". 

 

It was time to chill a little at the Zomerstrand then, which had this awesome sombrero shaped jumping castle.  The old ones can chill, I needed to go jumping for sure!

 

Time for something calmer, we went for a look through the Efteling museum as we arrived back at the Anton Pieckplein, showing some historical artifacts of the park.  But then it was time to jump back into action, as I took daddy along in Prikkebeen's Vlindermolen. 

 

It came close to dinnertime then, and we went for something to eat in Het Witte Paard, which was definitly worth the money and mommy said it seems like an often overlooked place. 

 

That left us with the time to do one final attraction this day, and what better then the wild water raft Piranha, leaving daddy totally soaked hehehe.  I had picked well indeed! 

 

Returning to the Wonder Hotel, a cute little show with mice was taking place in the lobby which I found incredibly funny to watch. 

 

But then it was time to check out our fairytale hotelroom, which also had some presents awaiting for me, yippie! 

 

And then, this little adventurer signed off for day one, ready to dream of all the adventures I had already and load up the batteries for day 2! 

 

 Which according to daddy has to start with a sandwich with some healthy rucola and the stacked up on crispy bacon...

 

 As we waited for the gates to open, I took the opportunity to do some small slides at the Kleuterhof playground.

 

First stop of the day was the magnificent Droomvlucht dark ride, as elves and trolls guard your dreams.

 

 We then went to the classic Steam Carroussel, and I was the very first to ride it that day wiiieej

 

 But then it was time to go to one of my favorite attractions, the Scirocco as we joined Sindbad in weathering a heavy storm at sea!

 

After that, it was time for some calmer sailing, as we did some tours on the Gondoletta boats, accompanied by mama duck and her ducklings.

 

We had lunch at Polle's Keuken, a pancake restaurant, and I saw how good daddy's pancake looked.  So I volunteered to help him keep his weight in check and ate 3/4ths of his as well...

 

 Back outside, it was time to go visit Polle himself who resides in Symbolica, which was majestically crowned by the Pagode this midday.

 

It was still a way to long waiting line for Danse Macabre, but we did see the new show that is performed outside the old abbey.

 

 Talking shows, there is also one with flamespitters at the entrance of Fata Morgana now, with the djinn playing a role as well.

 

It was then time for some calm rides, as I went back to drive around in the Oude Tufferbaan...

 

... as well as do another tour around the Volk van Laaf in the monorail.

 

Time for a good evening snack, as I had regular fries while mommy tried the recommended loaded fries from Smulpaap, and they where very good it seemed.

 

 But the day came to an end, and after a last visit I had myself driven home.  Calmly I instructed daddy, because I had some reflecting to do of another great weekend.

 

I can't wait for next year, and I'll see you all soon for more big adventures during this summer holiday break! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bedrieg Mij - Philip Van den Bossche

 Today's review is for a flemish book, which I doubt has been translated into english, so sorry for those who are going out to look for a non-dutch written copy.

 

Oh, and it is sort of very adult content, but it is an intresting subject...

 

Translating as "Cheat on Me", this book talks about the point of view of a true Cuckold, and how he came to discover his fetish, how it influenced his life, and how he grew into the role and it affected his longest lasting relationship.

 

The author is namely a cuckold in the not most extreme sense (he doesn't aim to be sissified for example) but who strives to see his partner happy, including on the level of sexuality, even cooking and cleaning while his partner meets up with her lover.  This is a journey he explored step by step, and which feelings awokened when he still worked in the belgian government circles and had a stormy encounter with one of the cleaning ladies there.  Going with her to her home, right before the act her husband walked in who was just there and okay with it all.  While he went away that day, he got intrigued by the behaviour of the husband.

 

Slowly over the course off the following years and true various relations, he started to fantasise more and more about his partner having sex with other men.  When he meets Rachel and starts a long time relation with her, he gets to live this fantasy, but it results in her actually moving in for a while with her lover, before eventually coming back to him.

 

The book interchanges his own experiences with references to actual psychological studies, a fetish theme that back in those days hadn't been explored that much at all though.  But it does give an intresting insight into a still rather taboo and non-understood fetish topic.

 

And before anyone asks if this is my thing, I'll reply with the same question I gave to people who saw me reading the book: if you are reading a book about a child murderer, is that because you are also one?

 

Oh, and in this case, the answer is that only Slaanesh knows... 

Getting in some casual games of Warhammer Underworlds

 Thorin, Noshi and Moeke are off to Mallorca, so what does a man alone at home have to do between shifts?

 

Right, game like hell!

 

And to that end, I met up with Thibaud, who joined our Underworlds community the week I started night shifts, and as such I had never played against beforehand.  It's always great to play new people and observe their playstyle!

 

For the first game, my Cyreni's Razors using Countdown to Cataclysm / Wrack and Ruin took on his Thundrik Profiteers using Emberstone Sentinels / Pillage and Plunder. 

 

I deployed Cyreni off to the side from the others, as I aimed to go after his smaller ones initially for some quick glory grabbing.

 

 However, things didn't really took off smoothly, and I opted instead to go and secure objectives for my needed points.

 

I quickly overwhelmed the treasure tokens, as the Duardin slowly advanced, making use of the fact I literally was twice as fast when uninspired. 

 

As such, I could take what I needed while Cephanyr infiltrated his half, but missed his attack on Khazgan, while Garodd escaped a similar fate.

 

But the first round ended and I had a  5-2 lead so that was fine in my book.

 

In the beginning of the second turn, Cephanyr was quick to fall to the Duardin.

 

Both the thralls started to mob up on the balloon corps member, and using Confusion to swap Alathyrr with Khazgan, leaving him vunerable but pushing him straight into Cyreni's Hammertide path, something Thibaud didn't notice.

 

Alathyrr, who was already gravely wounded, was taken down by Thundrik himself in the meantime, but he had served his purpose.

 

 The waves of the Hammertide washed over the field, and Khazgan was duly taken out.

 

 This left a close 11 to 10 on the board, as the duardin managed to score Strip the Realm as a result.

 

 Going in the third turn, Cyreni withdrew from the center where the duardin where now gathering around their leader.

 

She finally took down Garodd after I don't know how many attacks this game, but more importantly denied my opponent of scoring some cards. 

 

With Spread Havov the only card scored by both players combined in the end phase, the battle came to an end, as he had moved one of his duardin to deny Stay Close.

 

 But it was enough, and the Razors scored a 15-13 victory against the Profiteers!

 

So as we had time, we moved on to a second game, and this time I took my Myari's Purifiers with Emberstone Sentinel / Blazing Assault up against Zikkit's Tunnelpack, who brought Countdown to Cataclysm coupled to Wrack and Ruin.

 

 I deployed in a split formation, my offensive warriors to one side and my defensive to the other to maximise the target prioritising.

 

But things quickly went haywire, as I couldn't seem to hit with my 2 hammer attacks, and Senaela was quickly taken down by Rittak in his doomwheel. 

 

Ailenn took revenge though, striking down none other then Zikkit himself and leaving the rats leaderless... and a decent combat model was out of my way.

 

 As I went second, I had the last activation and this managed me to obtain both Hold Treasure token objectives, but a bolt from Myari pushed Nitch of his objective and into an edge hex, denying him a score of 4 glory from what he had in hand.

 

 As a result, I was at a 5-1 lead due to denying him the glory, giving me a good advantage even though my band had already suffered from poor defence rolls.

 

 The skaven went first, and wounded Myari gravely with another charge from the doomwheel.  I took better safe then sound, and brought the vunerable leader back to the edge of the board, where he was safe from Skaven charges and would be a pain for his Stay Close.

 

The skaven started cluttering near the center, throwing missiles at Bahannar instead.

 

 My warband was now gravely wounded, especially after TikTik detonated himself, wounding Ailenn for two.  bahannar had received Great Fortitude, so I had 3 aelves on 2 wounds each now, versus a healthy Rittak also with Great Fortitude and a mildly wounded Krittatok.

 

But it was enough to keep, and slightly expand, my lead, with 10-5 on the scoreboard now.

 

In the final turn, the Skaven again went first, and Krittatok blew himself up, taking Bahannar with him in the explosion.

 

 Myari, using Wings of War, infiltrated into the Skaven half for seemingly no reason...

 

 ... and while it cost him his life, the doomwheel had taken the bait and moved back into it's own territory as I had 2 surges in hand to score in enemy territory.

 

 Unfortunatly, while I scored one of them, I didn't manage to push the doomwheel away to be able to score the second in one of the last activations, as doomwheel drill and elven sword clashed, neither managing to wound the other...

 

... but I did get Keep Chopping in the end as such, and a 13-11 victory went in the books for the Lumineth.

 

So, these where some very tense games, with an opponent who like me plays the denial game more then the own scoring game.  I honestly admit I took home especially the first game pure on experience and oversight, when Cyreni managed to Hammertide the ballooneer out of the game.  The second game saw some "god rolls" from both sides, as two voltron'ed opponents spend 5 activations in total on each other, and neither even getting a single wound... or be pushed away.  You can as such imagine the amount of crits rolled in defences in that last round.  Good fun!

 

I just hope my pointers on how to deckbuild and how to make the life of the Emberstone Sentinel deck harder won't come back to bite me... 

 

 

 

 

Re: Life in a Different World from Zero

 Roight, guess I finally started this classic isekai series!

 

Time to see what all the Rem and Ram is all about in these 25 episodes of the debut season from 2016... longer seasons like in the older days, though I'm from the generation where a season was 50ish episodes.

 

Subaru, on his way home from a convenience store, suddenly finds himself transported to a medieval marketplace.  Attacked by hoodlums, he is saved by a silver-haired girl.  But when he is killed later by trying to help her, he finds himself right back at the point of his arrival in the city...

 

As events repeat, but he now has forewarning, he slowly advances and figures out what is happening to him, and how he resets every time he dies.  They are attacked again, but now manage to survive and drive off the murderer.  He wakes up in a large mansion, brought there by the silver haired girl, Emilia, and taken care by the twins Rem and Ram.  He is introduced to the other occupants of the mansion, and learns Emilia qualifies to become the next monarch.  But he is forced through a cycle of deaths again as he goes on a date with Emilia, and learns he is violently killed in the aftermath every time, inside the mansion.

 

While investigating, he finds out his assailant is actually Rem, who captures and tortures him, as he has the smell of the Witch over him.  During this process of saving them both and breaking the cycle, he also learns a bit of magic, yet struggles to really control it usefully.  Together with the twins he must face a horde of Mabeasts, controlled by a demon puppy to lift a series of curses bestowed onto him, and learns the tragic origins of the twins.  

 

The royal election is about to take place, and Felt, the girl he looked for when he originally arrived, is send forward as one of the candidates.  But after an injury, and unable to tell Emilia off his powers, their friendship comes to an unfortunate end due to a misunderstanding.  He runs into a group of darkrobed humans, and returning to the mansion after finding everyone dead, he is frozen to dead  himself, resetting once again.  This group is led by the insane Archbishop of Sloth, and after barely escaping is killed by a monstrous Puck, the familiar of Emilia.

 

Knowing the cult is about to attack, they decide to evacuate the mansion, but on the way must face the huge White Whale, a flying monster that they defeat thanks to rallying everyone under one goal as he vows to become a hero, and the timeline switches as a result.  He faces the archbischop now knowing full well what is at stake, and with the help of the others he defeats him once and for all.

 

So yeah, this is a fun isekai series, though perhaps not entirely my thing and liking.  I'll get round to the future seasons for sure, but that isn't the main goal to be honest at the moment, but it wasn't bad or something.  Just, well, enjoyable without anything more... 

 

 

The Idol

 So, a series which had quite some controversy when it came out, so we just have to check that out!

 

The fact it is the first mainstream thing in years that is produced that actually has an erotic feel to it, made it all the more intresting. 

 

Now, first things first, The Weeken'd was a seriously annoying factor.  While great in the first two episodes, he quickly became a "superhero syndrome" type of figure, no matter what crap he pulled, or how much drugs he used, it was all cool and awesome.  It shows he produced the whole series... 

 

 Jocelyn is a popular pop music artist, who is preparing for her come back after that her last tour had to be cancelled due to a mental breakdown.  After rehearsals, she meet Tedros in a nightclub, with whom she immediatly connects and asks to come to her house to help her with her new song.  During a BDSM style rehearsal, she rewrites the song totally from what it was intended to be.  Her manager and the tour and label representatives aren't over the world of it though, and during the shoot of the videoclip Jocelyn overdoes herself, breaking down again.  

 

Tedros comes back to her house together with Chloe and Izaak, two of the people from his nightclub.  He begins asserting control over Jocelyn's life and moves into the house with all his followers, and he makes her scrap her planned album to start anew with a new creative direction.  Tedros forces her to reveal her past to his group, which is nothing less then a cult.

 

When her manager has a background run on Tedros, it turns out he is nothing then a fraud and a petty criminal with a string of domestic abuse trials.  Xander, the creative assistant of Jocelyn, is also tortured until he submits into his cult, yet the cult harbours very talented and gifted, unsigned artists.  When she learns how she was tricked into his grasp by her background dancer, she decides to get back at him by having sex with her ex in earshot of Tedros.

 

When her team comes to judge if the tour can go on, she accuses Tedros of being a fraud and has him paid off to get out of her life.  He refuses, but her manager enlists his connections at Vanity Fair to totally ruin him and his reputation.  Yet during the opening night of her tour, she had him brought to her and calls him on stage, naming him the love of her life before everyone, including her flabbergasted management...

 

See, that is exactly what I mean, instead of the reasonable thing that her manager buries him somewhere under a rock (literally as one of her team suggests), he is brought forward as the bigger then life figure in the world... 

 

I liked the first two episodes, and 3/4ths of the finale, but the middle part and the last quarter just where to over the top of self-glorification of The Weeken'd, and that ruined a good series for me into something barely above stomachable. 

On Tour to the Frituur 18: Fritaurant in Merksem

 What better after a large tournament then some fries?

 

Indeed, nothing, so I went to a new place in Merksem in my next tour stop, Fritaurant located at the Frans Adriaensensstraat 2 in 2170 Merksem.

 

Now this a very modern interior designed place, and this in some way has a weird streak for a traditional mind as mine.  Unlike most frituur's, the place doesn't have a glass cabinet showing all or at least most of the snacks, only having large and very varied menu cards on the walls.  Now to be honest, this sort of causes a short circuit, and not only with me, as I often don't know what to take unless I "see" it lying in front.

 

It also has some frituur classics, like a Julienneke or a Romboutteke, which are loaded fries avant la lettre, and they have a whole lot of home made items like beef stew, chicken stew and more... The place is ran by a young couple, and they do seem to know their business as waiting lines progressed smoothly on a sunday evening. 

 

It also has spacious seating space to enjoy your food, seperated by a low wall from the waiting line for take out orders. 

 

My Order

 

I went for a Julienneke, which are fries topped with beef stew sauce, onion, mayonaise, and pieces of viandel, a Bicky cheese burger and a can of coca cola, putting me back 19.60 euro (the Julienneke or other loaded fries dishes are 11.50 each, a fair price).  The fries where nice and crispy, perfectly baked

 

Conclusion

 

It is modern, it is clean, but as I said, the lack of a glass cabinet is an odd concept for me.  While the speciality dishes are great additions to the menu, the regular snacks and fries are your pretty normal priced ranges, so even with it's modern touch it handles classic prices.

 

While the food was delicious, and this certainly adds to the rating, the lack of cabinet causes me to knock off a point, ending with a final rating of a well deserved 7.5 out of 10 for me. 

 

 

Babylon 5 ACTA: Oracle Scout

 Time for the second ship to be painted up for my Babylon 5 Earth Alliance fleet, and that is the brave Oracle scout.

 

At Priority level Skirmish in the A Call to Arms ruleset, wether it is in the 3rd Age or the Early years lists, this is a handy little vessel to have around.

 

Though personally I always prefered the Explorer for my scouting shennanigans, the vessel does come with a Stealth field, though nowhere as potent as the Minbari ones for example.  On the other hand, it is a solid little light cruiser with some decent all round weaponry considering it's level and it's role on the field of battle.  

 

But it was good fun to paint, even though assembling the little turrets and the engine "flaps" is a bit of a fiddly tinkering, but I like how it turned out in the end.

 

Now to go back to some more battle line vessels... 

 

 

On the Painting Desk 337

 Well ain't I a smart boy!

 

Instead of going in and paint the full regiments of Hobgoblins, I opted to first paint up the models I need for a game coming friday.

 

So that meant 12 Cutthroats and 10 Sneaky Gitz, and afterwards we can then paint up the rest of the regiments to serve our father Hashut.

 

And I made very good progress on these two as a result, they will be varnished and based without problem, though the Gitz will be not on 25mm adapters for the game.  My opponent has been informed, as it is to try out the rulespack for the event, but my adapter supplier is currently still on holiday.

 

So by next week's update, those two small units should be all ready and done, and I can work on the rest of them to hopefully get it all rounded out by the end of july.  Gazing into the future after that, I'm first going to finally finish that Spearhead terrain before going "all in" on the Belgians mostly.  

 

Because suddenly the deadlines come closer again...  

Doctor Who: Joy to the World

 Following the first season of the 15th Doctor's adventures, there is of course the christmas special tradition.

 

And the special this time was called Joy to the World. 

The Doctor arrives at the Time Hotel, a place that has rooms to all area's in history, where he enlists the aid of Trev, one of the hotel employees.  He is investigating a man with a briefcase that is handcuffed to his hand.  But when a new person is tricked in taking the case from them, the previous carrier disintegrates, when Trev's Silurian manager arrives in the room of Joy Almondo in 2024 London, the Doctor following him.

 

With Joy now being the new carrier, the Doctor opens the case and finds a strange device inside.  He prevents Joy being disintegrated with the help of his future self, and the future Doctor takes Joy along.  The current Doctor takes a job at the hotel, working there for a year and befriending Anita, the hotel manager.  When he arrives at the point of his future self before, he takes Joy along to a point 65 million years in the past.  Opening the case they learn the contents are actually a star seed, a bomb that creates a new sun, created by the Villengard weapons company from the past season.

 

A T-rex eats the case, but he is contacted by Trev, who now had 65 million years time for his conscience that has been connected to the device, to figure out a way of contacting the Doctor.  That way they manage to find the case again, but as the Doctor wants to take the case outside Joy merges with the star seed.  She assures him the device has overcome the Villengard's programming, and that she will become a new star in the sky, becoming the Star of Bethlehem but not before advising the Doctor to find a friend to battle his inert loneliness.

 

A typical christmas episode, it connects to the previous season of the franchise, while laying the seeds for things to come in the upcoming one.  It's worth the watch, and best to do so to connect some dots...