Saying good bye to Penny and David, my English friends and near neighbours in Sixhaven.

It is always emotional to move on, and despite the harsh winter and heating dispute, we have all been adult about it in the true liveaboard fashion. I have met so many lovely people here of all nationalities, and apart from an heartbreaking love affair last year, am leaving with no regrets.

Carro’s photograph of ‘Free’ leaving Sixhaven and crossing the ‘Ij’ to the south side.

I have a sense of gratitude for my wonderful companion, ‘Free’ and the freedom she has allowed me. How else would I have travelled so far and met so many beautiful people? This is real wayfaring at a pace similar to the great adventurers of the past. There is the feeling of sharing a great travelling heritage so rare in these days of cheap flights and plastic hotels.

”Happy Six’: Carro, Dan, Melvin (the dog) and Lars (Dan’s brother) sailing together to Het Yacht in Nieuwendam, Noord Amsterdam.

As ‘Happy Six’ and ‘Free’ made the short two mile trip down the Ij to Nieuwendam, we were all excited by the memory of being on the move after this long, endless winter; even though it seems far from over. Carro and I traded messages over the VHF and she took some interesting photographs of ‘Free’. Obviously, I rarely get a chance to see her!

Carro’s photograph of ‘Free’ and her skipper! On the way to ‘Nieuwendam’.

And so…. What happens next?

Well, my insurance company ‘Saga’ refused to insure me for the Baltic and Gulf of Bothnia. I suppose the fact that two stupid men tried to kill me in 2011 hasn’t helped my cause. I just wish they hadn’t made it seem like it was my fault. You get ‘whacked’ and then make a claim… AND THEN they refuse to insure you!!! It can’t be due to lack of sailing experience or sea miles. I didn’t do any of my 14,000 sea miles sitting in a marina bar with the so-called ‘yachtmasters’ and all their certificates. Still, I am female, and that probably doesn’t help in this ‘man’s world’.

I have another more professional company, Pantaenius, who have offered me a reasonable third party package with full coverage. This means that the gateway to the Baltic beckons and my lifelong dream of a Viking Summer has edged just a little closer! I remember sitting at my little desk at St Gregory’s RC Primary school in South Shields, listening to Grieg’s ‘Morning’, and dreamily contemplating the sailing north to Scandinavia. It has always been a dream of mine.

‘Free’ at ‘Het Yacht’, Nieuwendam, flying her new ‘red duster’; a special gift from Carro and Dan. Their help and friendship makes it very precious to me.

Now it is time for my final preparations before the long voyage north to the Kiel Canal and the Baltic. Sea trials in the Ijssel Meer will be necessary and I anticipate a few weekends sailing alongside with my Swedish friends, as I put ‘Free’ through her paces. Then as soon as the ice melts to the north, I will be on my way.

Until then, it is party time with my Viking friends!!! Work hard, play hard and grab life by the bollocks!

No fear… just Love.

That is the ‘Viking Way’!

I went out with him to put the horses in the barn for the night….he gets around very slowly…walker to the front door, walker to the steps on the porch…cane down the steps to his golf cart…a cane to open and close the door for the horses and then a walker once they’re inside. I go on ahead of him to the horses…he doesn’t want ANY help getting around, so I leave him to it…(I sneak a look every now and then to make sure he’s doing all right). I took a few quick shots while the horses were waiting for Melvin to get there and then I took one of Melvin…I JUST LOVE THIS PHOTO!!!!!!!

So following along the lines of my visit with Melvin…on this very special weekend, celebrate the love and the life that was given to us.
Love to you all….Zannyro.

Mac….

Melvin

Around the month mark, I dropped all men that I’d been “seeing” in one form or another.  There were all various reasons. Some of them were being less than truthful. More specifically, the Mechanic. One night he messaged me while I was at work, and wanted me to meet him at his job. He wouldn’t specify why and I was not in the mood to get murdered so I said no. He pushed some more and I refused to go over there. His story never lined up on what he did. He kept saying he helped families, but when pressed he wouldn’t/couldn’t tell me what he did. He said he worked for a middle man between Aegon and Transamerica. Still not real details. So I stopped talking to him.

There was another gentleman: Mr. Yoop. We’d been talking online for weeks, and though I’d asked for a date, he wouldn’t set one. All he would tell me was that the date didn’t work for him, so we dropped it. I wasn’t in the mood to be catfished so I stopped talking to him as well. There was also a gentleman named Clinton who turned out to be a clinger, who after 3 days, started sending me pictures about being in love. I ended that quickly.

Then in the funniest situation of them all, there was Melvin. Melvin was a 31 year old man I met online. For some reason, we could not get it together. He would send me a message after I’d signed off, and I wouldn’t get it until too late or vice versa. In one case, he asked for my number and I unknowingly gave him the wrong one. He messaged and he waited, and I waited. At first I thought he just turned out to be not interested. When we figured out, I tried to make a joke of it, and all he had was “What do you mean by that.” I should have taken this as a sign to move on and leave him alone. But no. I gave him the right number, and we began messaging. At 8 am the next morning, he sent me a messaging asking if I wanted to hang out.

This was a red flag.

“Well what do you have in mind?”

Men always want to hang out. It signifies no commitment sex. No. Not interested. I tried to cue him that I didn’t want to be alone on his sofa with some man I’d never met and suggested dinner.

“I find that movies (he’d suggested hanging at his place and perhaps watching a movie) are not the best way to get to know someone, since you are focused on the screen Dinner perhaps?.”

I hoped he would get the message. Not so much.

“But wouldn’t you be focused on the food instead of the person still?” (Or at least I think this is what he meant, the text was riddled with typos).

Are you an idiot?

At this point, I’d had enough. I politely texted him back and canceled.

“I”m sorry Melvin, I will have to pass. Thank you for the offer though.”

The reply that came back, was simply infuriating:

“I see all u want it (is?) someone to take u out u not looking for nothing serious.”

I knew where he was going with this. But I could not stop myself from replying.

As you can see, Melvin didn’t take my refusal for an answer but continued to message me for a few days before he finally dropped off. I think this interaction left me the most confused. He was the target audience. Black male, 31 years old, with a stable job.  Clearly there is no way to predict crazy though. At this point I realized that the search for the one would have to take a back seat for a minute. When I broke up with FALD, I was adamant in not getting into another LTR. I have always been in a relationship and I was curious to see what it would be like to not be in one for a minute. The problem, my search for dates, with few complications, was turning up tons of duds. I had wrongly assumed that not looking for the one, would be easier. Sadly, human interaction seems to be complicated no matter the approach.

This week, I only heard from the Ex himself. We talked for almost an hour, and he took it as his chance to ask for dinner. The only reason I said yes was due to the conversation between us being so easy. It was almost as if he understood that we wouldn’t be any thing more than friends. The next day my dose of reality hit aka, my friends pointed out that I realized this but he may not. So we have a sushi date-ish schedule for after work. The way I figure, this can go one of two ways:

1. He pretends nothing is wrong and then makes one desperate plea at the end of the meeting that proves we can never be friends

2. This is all actually all set up for an episode of 20/20 and he’ll go nuts and kill me in the middle of the restaurant….

Yea.

I suppose there is a third unmentioned option. That I will get to the restaurant and the feeling of being comfortable will continue and I’ll miss him and want to get back into a relationship with him. I’ve been thinking about this ever since we scheduled the date-ish. Then today, I was lying in corpse pose in yoga and John Mayer provided some on time therapy.

Who do you love? Me or the thought of me?

I think for the majority of our relationship I loved the idea of what FALD meant. Our story, the cuteness of it all, how “well” we fit. Maybe it was never about him until it was. Maybe after a year, the cuteness faded and I just couldn’t stay with the man that was left.

Well.

Here goes nothing.

“The medical examiner has determined it’s definitely a homicide and is definitely caused by violence,” said Hallandale Beach Police Chief Dwayne Flournoy.

Dontrell’s remains were found in January during an investigation into his disappearance. His parents, Calvin Melvin, 27, and Brittney Sierra, 21, have both been in jail since January in connection with the case.

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Dontrell went missing in July 2011, but no one reported him missing until January 2013. His disappearance didn’t come to light until child welfare investigators responded to a child neglect call on January 9 and found only two children when there should have been three.

The Broward County Medical Examiner’s Office said Dontrell died as a result of “violence of undetermined means.”

“He (the medical examiner) said if it’s blunt force trauma or gunshot, or anything like that, but he said there was definitely violence in the death of Dontrell Melvin.”

Earlier this month, the Hallandale Beach Police Department received DNA results from the body which revealed, “genetic data are approximately 31.2 trillion times more likely to be observed under the scenario that the unidentified remains originated from a biological child of Brittney J. Sierra and Calvin Melvin Jr. as opposed to the unidentified remains originating from an unrelated individual from any of the three major U.S. population groups.”

Melvin has since been jailed on charges of giving false information to a law enforcement officer regarding a capital crime. Sierra is charged with child neglect. Neither parent is charged with homicide as of Friday morning.

Sierra has two other children, including one fathered by Melvin.

Melvin

Source
T-Mobile new plan

Theodore DeReeese “Teddy” Pendergrass was born on March 26, 1950 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was an R&B singer, songwriter, drummer and ordained minister. Pendergrass was ordained to preach the gospel at the age of 10.  He was spotted by Harold Melvin playing drums at an event in Philly and Melvin hired him as drummer for his group “Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes.” Melvin heard Pendergrass’ voice and immediately made him lead singer of the group. The group had  hits in the 70′s with Pendergrass. He stayed with the group for several years before his successful solo career.  In 1982, Pendergrass was involved in a near tragic auto accicent that left him paralyzed from the waist down. He did not give up on himself, fans or others. He founded the Teddy Pendergrass Alliance, a foundation that helps those with spinal cord injuries. He hosted a star event commemorating his 25 years of living with a spinal cord injury called ‘Teddy 25 – A Celebration of Life’ at Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center. His last performance was on a PBS special at Atlantic City’s Borgata Casino in November 2008.

After years of  “Whole Town Laughing”, “Be For Real”, “Close Door” “Love TKO”, “Come Go With Me”, “If I Had”, “I Don’t Love You Anymore”, “Joy” and “2am” We can never forget the soulful and jazzy sound of Teddy Pendergrass. Pendergrass died on January 13, 2010.

Ladies and gentlemen enjoy a timeless concert from the late Teddy Pendergrass. Happy Birthday “Teddy”

Here are a few photos given to Sarah by a friend from Holland, Sjors, who attended the walk. He shared his experience and explained how it was an honour to participate in the walk and to meet people like Melvin who secured his freedom.

Anja, Melvin, Sjors, Donald	Melvin and Donald during the ceremony
The Monument	The Walk

The Walk

As noted yesterday by Jeree, more details will be entered by Donald upon his return from overseas