Canuk

As the actress said to the bishop.....

Mort to the rescue! Barts dealing with the "protectors" was bizarrely sexy in a way.... Well, this looks like our troop will have found peace and a shower... hope it lasts.

All I can say is keep going north; soon they will get to gods own country north of Cairns😍 I am surprised there are people with jewellery in Ingham...last time I went through there having your own teeth was considered a mark of gentility🤐 While todays "civilisation" has issues, not sure I am enjoying this new run-for-blokes-by-blokes society. Too many rough edges. I am way too soft for all these rules. Live and let live and bitch about the consequences is more my style. 🤔

Well, can't say you didn't warn us....

I am not sure what it is about Will and Dillon, but it gives me a good feeling! 😊😋🙄

"...I'll understand." No you bloody wouldn't! I get the feeling that you enjoy torturing your readers with hopelessness and despair, misery and bad luck, just so you can come and rescue us with sweetness, redemption and light! 😆

This is going to be something of an adventure, and a cold one at that! Whitworth seems to be getting more and more stupid as time moves on. First why piss off the people, important people, you are with? Second negotiating an agreement by giving information away unnecessarily seems self defeating. He must have both an immense sense of his own importance and enough friends at Court to keep him from self destructing. Meanwhile all our hero needs to do is get by the Danish fleet, not starve, not freeze, get to StPetersburg before the Danish emissary and then get home. Simple ( if you say it quickly!)

the perils of being old and dependent. his housing sounds really unsuitable. Apart from the lack of economical heating, the hot water situation, the stairs and the lack of security... honestly he'd be better off in a one bed apartment near local shops. but when you are old and frail, how do you arrange that without some well meaning bureaucrat sticking you in a home?

i detect a chemical reaction is about to occur..... Brady cannot keep passing out every time November looks at him, people will start talking!! I love your description of Novy and AJ; they both sem to sense that something is happening, but being young, it all revolves around them and that, to them, doesn't add up, so they are confused! great story... looking forward to more!

Losing what we have is all so easy. And yet despite what we see happening now in Poland, Hungary, Russia, Turkey and in parts of the US, we have people power in Armenia. While that hasn't yet played out fully, it implies that people can oppose incipient totalitarianism. Sad to think that what will ultimately cause the final destruction of humanity will not be whatever we are doing the theclimate, it want be the ridculous levels of economic and social inequality, it will be zealotry of fundamentalist religion. Depressing.

Sounding very like Tehran 1974/5. Very dark picture of a totalitarian society. Love the "transformation" of our band of brothers. Hylas with St Vitus' dance was amusing! I am concerned as to where they will go. They have money, brains and comparative youth on their side, but a lifetime of running from fanatical religous trogs and their enforcers is not a fun life. I look forward to their next steps....

I am glad our troop have found a sanctuary, if only temporary. Glad to catch up with characters from Dome, too. The exposition on love and friendship, with emphasis on what people want as opposed to what rules "society" lays down was both well written and very interesting. It is amazing how so many people regard the "rules" of society as so sacrosanct, and yet, so often, we find we didn't really need them at all or their usefulness has long gone. These range from the shock at Jean Shrimpton not wearing stockings and gloves to the Melbourne Cup, to same sex couples being able to adopt. Then we get the backlash; thepeople who are scared that without "structure" we'll all be doomed. I started with an amazingly (and bery happily) structured life, but at some stage I realised that it was not the structure that made me happy. Its sad that JECHIS-like people don't /can't see this. Well, that was a long disertation for 7:30am. Coffee was good!

I think I mentiomed dystopia last chapter....we are way beyond dystopia. This is full on nightmare stuff. So much of what we call society is based on trust. Trust in leaders, trust in institutions (government, financial and institutional) and basic trust in each other. While societies , all societies are imperfect, without trust we have nothing. Mr Rigby Taylor you have created a nightmare...I look forwardto what I hope will ultimately be a peaceful morning....😐

To avoid the insult, could I suggest my question was rhetorical? Are we friends again?😆

Well we have taken a turn to the dark side. I can see my concerns re Lance were completely misplaced. To probably misquote someone important; "evil thrives when good men look away". Are our good men going to look away?

I love that your amazing, fevered and comprehensive imagination can produce such an appaling distopia. Whereas in real life we know everyone would behave rationally and sanely and would dismiss the rantings of the dogmatic few. (See what a classical education does? Promotes irrational wishful thinking to extraordinary heights!)

Blimey! Well that was... explosive! But JECHIS.....? Sounds like the moral majority and isis combined. I really do not get why it worries someone else, some one neither related nor intimate with me would care how I lived. And if their god does, surely thats between me and their god? Unless their god is such a wimp s/he needs mere mortals to help. A very unexpected chapter!

Bit harsh on Peter Carey...😆 Lance, oh! Dear, things are not going to go well for him are they? I dare say he'll cause a bit of mayhem, but please 1)no one needs to die before he does 2) could he please have a quick and painless death? I know he doesnt deserve it, but no more weedkiller.... (see, I am a softy liberal at heart!) Obliquely on topic. Saw a video about an approach to Boys education" He'll be OK". Written by a NZ woman a few years ago. Sound very sensible: mothers need to step back and let their sons grow up as boys/men. From the brief bit I saw looked better than most...

Brothers! Nightmares you can't live without! Another bloody awful mother. What sane person does that to their child? Not human. Great story, really interesting characters. Thanks

Perhaps, yes. I have always thought of "workout" and "enjoyment" the antithesis of eachother. And "enjoy workout" as a complete oxymoron!

In a previous story you created the perfect bush fantasy, living at one with nature with a like minded group. Now you have created a similar group in downtown (ish) Brisbane. Truly delightful! It would be dekightful to be able to live in such a natural way. Closest I came was in Darwin where I attended a very low key, low tech gym. The mid 30s bloke that ran it established it as at his prev commercial gym there was a strict "no touching" policy. Now he was hardly all over his clients like a rash, but he did guide and direct with his hands and his voice. It was a great gym. Hell of a lot more emphasis on stretching and felixibity than bulk. He didn't work naked, but the little shorts were pretty close! (It was Darwin so pretty warm all year round). On more thing I miss about leaving Darwin...😯 Great to see Mort make a "flash" reapearance! It is true that money does not buy hapiness, but it does give you a choice: a better class of misery, or if you are a naturally good person, you'll find a away to use the resource to make you and those around you happier. Despite the upbeat nature of this chapter, I do feel that shadow of Lance..... 😯

Agree whole-heartedly re prisons. In Darwin they spent just short of a billion on a new state of the art prison with amazing educational and other facilities. Then year one they decided that all the "extras" were too expensive, so now its just a bloody expensive very high tech punishment unit. I am worried about what damage Lance can do outside gaol. He will have too many grudges, too many contacts, to much access to all thats evil. Where's Mort when you need him!

Well having caught up with 30 chapters in 24 hours, really looking for next stage! Great story, great sadness, amazing love and tremendous humour. Thanks

why does Jake worry me?..... and Dillon looks to be around for a while.....

winter in StPetersburg is supposedly very slightly better than winter in Copenhagen, one being bitterly cold but comparatively dry, the other very cold wet and windy. Our hero certainly has the chips stack against him. and it doesn't sound like the unstacking will be pleasant at all...... looking forward to what his plans are for St Petersburg as well as the various "advices" he gets from the diplomats.....