The Watch – Part 148:

I walked outside before I was pushed out. A loud echo boomed around the street as Amy slammed the door behind me. A couple of people who were walking by turned their heads to look at me with a puzzled expression. A woman across the road shook her head with disgust as if I committed an offensive action. Of all the differences that could have happened when I created a new timeline, Amy not knowing me had to be the one. I wanted to get out of here as quickly as possible so I started to walk away with my head bowed and my tail between my legs.

When I was in an excluded location, which was down the alley leading towards Amy’s house – or the house she used to live in – I set about working out how to fix this. I knew what happened: Due to my repairing the world, I created yet another new Parallel Universe. Everything that happened before Magician teleported me to the salt plains happened. That’s why Amy is living at my house now, because she was there when I disappeared, and when a new Parallel Universe is created, there has to be at least one difference between the two. Unfortunately for me, that difference is Amy doesn’t have a clue as to who I am. I know I know all of this, but I need to explain it to myself again so that I can get a clearer picture in my head of how to fix it.

An idea formed in my head. The moment it came together, I knew how impactful the idea would be.

‘I can’t do that,’ I said to myself, pacing backwards and forwards in the alleyway. No other thought took the place of that idea. I tried finding another way, but I couldn’t. I just couldn’t.

‘If I did that, everything will be fixed. Then I can carry on as if nothing changed.’ I don’t want to go back to that apocalyptic world every again. I can’t bare another second looking at a world that is in ruins, with so many people dead, so many lives ruined, with no hope. I can’t go back there. I just can’t. There has to be another way? There isn’t. I have no choice. I have to do this.

***

A peaceful world. No one knows of the dangers that are about to come. No one knows of the Monsters that are waiting to lay their ‘hands’ on them, destroy everything around them, tare this world apart, bring it to its knees. The calm before the storm. So many poetic thoughts running through my head. I watch as people go about their business, cheerful. Knowing the future is a dreadful experience. I can’t bring myself to smile. I know they are alive in another future, but it’s not the same. I might have saved them, but it still happened. They still die. All of them. The sooner I can get back to that new world that I created, the better. I can’t stand another second in this world. I can’t stand another second knowing.

I’m standing outside my house, hesitant. I must do this to save Amy. There has to be another way. Maybe I can change the future somehow. How? I don’t know.

I can see Amy sitting in the living room, processing what has just happened. There has to be another way. I have to do this now or it’ll be too late. Wait, that doesn’t make any sense, I can do anything, so surely I can wait around for a bit until I’ve thought of another way? Surely?

Create another parallel universe. Yes, it’s that simple. I don’t have to do much, just show up in the middle of the battle between me and Magician. That difference will change the future. It’s as simple as that.

But what if the same thing happens again. What if Amy returns to not knowing who I am? Can I risk that? I’m not sure if I can. I have to do this.

I walk along the garden path and place my hand on the handle, turning it gently, still mulling things over in my head whether or not this is the best thing to do. I step inside.

‘Sebastian,’ Amy’s hysterical voice called through. She appeared in the hallway, her face full of worry, stress and shock. ‘What happened? Why did you disappear like that? Where did you go?’ she asked quickly before noticing the many images inside my eyes. Her shoulders dropped, her intensity quickly changed to sympathy. ‘What happened?’

‘It’s a long story,’ I said softly. I wasn’t smiling. I imagined coming through this door with a massive grin on my face, reuniting with Amy with a hug.

‘Come here,’ Amy said, holding out her arms, inviting me closer. I ran towards her, leaping into her arms. I held her tightly as if I was hoping that she would automatically understand everything so I didn’t have to tell her. Tears ran down my eyes. The shock is finally coming out of my system. Having Amy back is the best feeling in the world.

‘Hey,’ Amy said softly, stroking my back to relieve as much stress as possible.

‘I’m sorry,’ I said.

‘Sorry for what?’ Amy asked curiously. ‘What happened when you left?’

‘I can’t explain. Not yet. To do so would take too much time and we haven’t got a lot of it left.’

‘What do you mean by that?’ Amy asked, worry filling up her eyes once more.

‘Do you trust me?’ I asked.

‘What?’ Amy asked, shocked at the sudden question.

‘Do you trust me?’ I asked again, more seriously.

‘Of course I do. Why wouldn’t I?’ I broke the hug and looked at her in the eyes. ‘Take my hand,’ I said. She did so without hesitation, signifying the bond we have together, making this much easier to do. I inputted the necessary commands into the watch and readied to press the button.

‘Brace yourself,’ I said, sniffing, ‘we’re going to take a trip through the Void.’

‘We are?’ Amy said surprised. ‘What for?’

‘You’re going to experience some strong side-effects,’ I explained without answering any of her questions. She listened intently, her curiosity growing tenfold.

‘OK,’ she said simply. ‘Where’re we going?’ Just then, we both heard the sky opening up. We’ve only got a few seconds, maybe less, before the Monsters tear this world apart piece by piece. I didn’t wait for Amy to brace myself. I pressed the button.

***

We arrived in the new world in the alleyway where I was before. I’m starting to get used to my body being dismantled and reassembled so it only took a few seconds before I was able to find my balance and stand up straight, but this was Amy’s first time travelling through the Void, and as a companion, so the side-effects were even stronger than mine were when I first travelled through the Void. All her energy had been sucked out of her causing her to collapse onto the ground.

‘Sebastian?’ she said before her eyelids closed and she passed out. I wrapped my arms around her as I gently lowered her to the ground, making sure she was in a comfortable position.

‘Will she be alright?’ I asked Interface who appeared beside me.

‘She will be fine,’ he said simply, ‘but as she was not wearing the watch, it will take a lot longer for her to recover.’

‘OK.’

And now for the second part of my plan…

TO BE CONTINUED…

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)

Mum's Monday: Cocktail

There is more to life than money. It takes Brian Flanagan (Tom Cruise) a while to realise this.

For some people, leaving the army can be seen as a new start or as a them having an uncertain future. For Brian however, all he wants is to make money that is essentially all he thinks about. We see him go from job interview to job interview and being told that he needs more qualifications for the types of jobs he is going for. Looking exhausted, he walks up to a bar with a sign in the window advertising a job. This is a good portrayal of realising that you may have set your first sights too high and a job is a job.

The bar is run by Doug Coughlin (Bryan Brown) who gives him a trial, which Brian passes, but without the odd mishap along the way. With Doug’s help Brian finds his way and they end up making a great team, helped along by a catchy soundtrack to the film.

Doug also has his sights on making money and it seems the two of them together are not the best influence on each other outside of the bar life.

After a falling out and another life lesson on women from Doug, Brian ends up running a bar on a beach in Jamaica a while later. Doug arrives and much to the surprise of Brian; he has married Kerry (Kelly Lynch) who is from a rich family. I feel Brian was doing well in Jamaica and he meets Jordan Mooney (Elisabeth Shue) who we can see they are made for each other. Jordan is from a rich family, but doesn’t flaunt it like Doug and Kerry. This poor taste spills over to Brian when Doug makes a bet that Brian can’t pull a rich woman. Brian being swept along takes the bet. This is a bad move and I wish Doug had left well alone and had stayed away from Brian.

Brian wins the bet and goes off with Bonnie (Lisa Banes) where they end up back in New York and who is, although rich is totally unsuitable for him, Brian does realise this and storms off. He finds Jordan again; she is working as a waitress. Even though her family is rich she still wants to pay her own way in the world. This does show that you can still be a down to earth character, even from a wealthy background, you don’t have to flaunt your money just because you have loads.

It turns out Doug has blown a fortune on an unsuccessful bar, which was funded by his wife’s family. It also emerges he is all talk and hasn’t got a clue how to run his own business. As the character is portrayed Doug finds himself with what he sees as no other option but to end his life. Meanwhile, Kerry is being taken home by Brian and makes a move on him. This shows what a farce the idea of marriage is between Doug and Kerry. Luckily we see Brian is better than that, and this film makes this very clear.

After Brian finds Doug has committed suicide, this is when Brian realises there is more to life than money and sees where having money has left Doug and makes it clear (which is long overdue) that he wants to be with Jordan no matter what, she is then cut off from her family when they realise she wants to be with a bartender and Brain having grown in character throughout the film is not bothered by this and takes her with him.

At the end, we see Brian happier than he was at the beginning, he has his wife Jordan, who is pregnant with twins and with help from his uncle, he is now running his own modest bar called Cocktail and Dreams. It is nice to see his dream fulfilled.

There are many life lessons in this film, Doug’s character could have derailed this film in more ways than he did, but Brian came along way since the beginning and learnt a lot, and being the better person stayed far stronger and won out in the end.

This is about more than just mixed drink; this film is a cocktail of life.

Jerry’s Journal: He’s Found His Favourite Spot

After one week since Jerry has entered our home, he has found his favourite place to sit, lay, and sleep.

Jerry with his new blanket.

But when he’s awake, he enjoys sitting in that spot, too. The trouble is, that’s also where mum likes to sit. Oh, well.

Jerry has created a comfy den for him to sleep.

Jerry's first car ride to the vet's for his booster vaccination. A little nervous, but he soon settled down beside me.

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)

The Watch – Part 147:

Is it really over? Yes. I can go back home. I can spend time with Amy. My body is buzzing with adrenaline, my mind racing all around, exploring as much as it possibly can as fast as it possibly can before it becomes one huge blur, and I don’t take anything in at all. I saved the world. I did that once before, though with the rockets, but this is different. I fought and defeated a powerful adversary. I was knocked down further than I’ve ever been before, and I rose back up again, and explored new powers. Interface once told me that I am capable of doing anything I shall wish, and all I could do was just accept what he said and move on because the full in depth meaning to his statement was hard to fully digest and it still is, but I now understand it a lot better than I did before. I have just saved the world, but I changed time, closed a portal that leads to another dimension, defeated a powerful person with extraordinary magical potential.

I’ve never felt anything like this before.

I’m walking down the street, watching life fly by me. I can’t help but study it. See it in all its glory. There’s so much to see it’s hard to fully digest everything. Let’s just say that it’s a busy street, full of busy people going about their lives. As they should be. Birds are flying high above me, searching for food, shelter. Some are flying because of the sake of it, because they can.

I wonder what life is like in the deepest part of the ocean. How many species have we yet to discover? There are so many possibilities that it’s hard to find what I want to do the most since I want to do them all at once. And, as it so happens, I can even do that as well. I can be in multiple places at once. I can be anywhere on this planet as well as sitting in college listening to a lecture. When my teacher is talking about ancient Egypt, I can actually go and explore it. How awesome would it be if I knew more than the teacher did, trumping her with accurate information instead of pieced together facts from an old textbook? I can go and watch the pyramids being built. Finally, after all this time, someone from modern day will be able to discover an answer to that age old question. As well as that question, I can answer anything the teacher can throw at me. I can answer anything my mind can conjure up. I can answer anything anyone asks me. No matter what.

I want to do that now. I want to answer so many questions. I want to gather up as much information as I can, store in my head for a later date when I will be able to show it off to whoever so asks me. It’s so tempting to nip back in time before tea, because, of course I can arrive back here merely a second later, as if I never left at all, except now I would be so much wiser.

But I won’t. Once I’ve started, I’ll never stop. I need a rest before doing anything as my brain is still so active, excited and packed full of adrenaline that I would easily burn myself out before I even begin, and I may reach my limit and crash down hard and fast, leaving me in a heap on the floor, struggling to get up.

But I can prevent that from happening… Can’t I? When Interface said I can do anything, that means I can also…

No, I must remain grounded. I must rest. I must… I don’t have to do anything. I’ve all the time in the world, and more. I have all the time in all the worlds, across infinite parallel universes. I can manipulate time any way I want: Stop it, reverse it, fast-forward it…

My head is starting to ache with the so many ideas flying around, trying to get themselves noticed. I have to try and push them to the back of my mind, otherwise I’m never going to get some sleep. I will always want to keep moving.

Maybe just going home will help me relax. Teleporting back home will be the last time I use the watch for a while.

But before, I need to relinquish my body from all of the powers that are running through it. I’m standing in the open, but I’m not worried. No one notices me as I navigate through the watch’s menus, shutting down every one of my powers, reverting my body back to its normal-self. That has helped a lot. I’ve only just noticed how tense my shoulders were now that they are gone. I then insert the necessary coordinates into the watch. My finger was hovering over the button. Why was I hesitating? I can’t figure out the reason. Maybe I shouldn’t return home yet? Why can’t I? I want to go home. I press my finger against the button.

I arrive in front of my house an instant later. I see Amy through the window sitting on the couch watching TV. She looks so peaceful. I couldn’t wait to see her smile bright up the room once more. I actually felt nervous as I walked up to the front door. I opened it and stepped through. Everything was just how I remembered it. Why would it be different? To be honest, I didn’t check. I could have gone literally seconds. I stepped through the hallway. Amy was standing in the living room.

Wide eyed?

‘What’s wrong?’ I asked, stopping in my tracks.

‘Who the hell are you, coming in here like you own the place?’

What?

‘Get out of my house.’

What?

‘Get out now or I’ll call the Police?’

I don’t understand.

She picked up the phone and started to dial 999. ‘I’m warning you,’ she said. ‘Get out now.’

TO BE CONTINUED…

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)

Video of the Week: Isolation – Mind Field (Ep 1) (by Vsauce)

Vsauce’s new YouTube Red series, Mind Field, is an interesting watch. It’s essentially one of Michael’s regular videos, but with a bit more in depth hands on approach to what he’s explaining. This episode, he tackles the subject of boredom and what lengths we will go to keep ourselves occupied. He has already explored boredom once before, but whilst Michael did give us some useful and interesting information, it was only a brief exploration as it was a subtle tangent from the main subject in that particular video.

Michael talks with professionals and people who have involved themselves with certain procedures to help with relaxation, giving the same feel as any other science TV show. After watching the video, he showed us a preview of the up-in-coming episodes, and of course, they are Vsuace videos, so they will always be worth the time to watch as you are guaranteed to learn something new every time. He packs so much information into one video, whilst you are able to follow him and understand it all, when you come round to watching his videos again, you do find something that you’ve either forgotten, or missed during the first time you watched the video.

I do want to watch this series, but the problem is, Vsauce is the only series I am interested in on YouTube Red, and whilst I would be seeing all episodes of Mind Field, when this series is over, there may not be anything I would like to watch between series, if he does make another series that is. I’m torn between the two thoughts, and it’s hard to decide.

Overall, this episode has given me a great first impression, it is essentially the same as any other Vsauce video, but just with a bit extra ingredients, making the series unique but just as enjoyable.

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)

1,000 Words: The Curious Seagull

Two years ago, in November, my parents went away on holiday to San Francisco, a place my dad always wanted to go, and after much saving, he finally touched down on those steep hills. During one of their days, after a big breakfast at their hotel, they decided to go for a walk, and they came across a poster advertising a boat trip around the bay. When on that boat ride, they went under the famous Golden Gate Bridge, they saw the place where the popular science show Mythbusters was frequently filmed at, but one particular moment that my dad saw he had to take a picture of, was when a seagull landed just behind them, minding its own business.

I have to admit that I was surprised it came that close, but it didn’t disturb them and they didn’t disturb it, except when my mum asked if it had got a ticket which it then rightly squawked at her before flying away.

Film of the Week: La La Land

Written by Antony Hudson and Sandra Hudson

This wasn’t just a film experience; this was an experience. La La Land follows Mia (Emma Stone), an aspiring actress finding it difficult to find a solid acting role, and Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) a passionate jazz musician who wants to keep the art form alive. I was captivated from the beginning; the film is a true classic musical that proved it can still be done and that we need to see more in the future and what only added to the power it held was the originality. I have nothing against adaptations and sequels, but we need more original stories, and this is exactly what we needed to hopefully kick start a new wave.

Seeing the characters evolve over the course of the film, from being optimistic and not wanting to turn their back, to being broken and believing their dreams are too far away; as well as Mia and Sebastian’s relationship from the very beginning develop and grow was perfectly told. The film’s pace was perfect throughout. There were a couple of moments when I believed it was nearing the end, that I had sat through the entire 2 hour run, but then it kept going and I was happy about that, because if the film had ended when I thought it would, I would have been disappointed.

It's packed so much story into 2 hours, with stunning camera shots, incredible music numbers that took full advantage of everything it could. No song felt out of place and sudden, each and every song blended in perfectly, which allowed me to remain relaxed and calm as the story continued, showing me the lives of these two characters.

I never once thought they had rushed this or they had rushed that, the writer and director, Damien Chazelle’s camera work showed us exactly what we needed to see. He didn’t need to pack so much into one scene making it busy, or so little you were bored and looking for stuff, instead he put precisely what was needed to move the story forward just enough. It’s all about quality not quantity, which is shown in the story itself and as a whole. Mia’s play had a small audience, however, it was who showed up that counted instead of the number of people; that one person in her audience helped her see her dream hadn’t died.

The transitions between scenes were flawless, if I praise this film any more I will be repeating myself. The music, both in the background and the foreground helped put depth to each scene. If, as this film implies that jazz is a dying art, La La Land goes a long way to help revitalise this genre

La La land has received a staggering 14 Oscar nominations, tying it with “Titanic” and “All About Eve”. La La Land deserves every single one. There will be some gigantic films in the Oscars this year, so it will be an intriguing watch on the 26^th February, and the odds of La La Land bringing home all 14 wins is, understandably, small, however if somehow it does manage to take each award home, it does truly deserve each and every single one of them. Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling’s performances were absolutely incredible, flawless, and moving in so many ways.

Even though we’re still in the first month of 2017, and there are some huge movies coming out over the course of this year, I can already see that this has made my top film list of 2017, and I could go even further and say that this is probably sitting comfortably in the top 3. It would be weird to say that this is my number one film of the year, because it’s actually the first film of this year I’ve seen.

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)

The Watch – Part 146:

I searched through the many menus on the watch’s screen. Even though I’ve navigated the same menus many times before, it still feels as if this is my first time searching, as if I don’t know where I’m going. Every screen I come to have so many options, and each and every single one of those options takes me to another screen with just as many, if not, even more options, giving the impression that it’s trying to confuse me – make me lose my way and stray off to somewhere else.

I finally make it to where I want to go. The screen with today’s time on and a scrolling option menu with every hour and every minute and every second and every millisecond, with the seconds ticking by normally as time continues forward the longer I stand here, studying the screen. I accidentally hit something to do with the time and the hours disappear. Now it’s showing me every microsecond, nanosecond, picosecond and every femtosecond. I am not as surprised as I thought I would be upon seeing just how precise I can travel through time, which does make me wonder if I can go even further, but I don’t know what I hit to bring up this option. Tapping this and tapping that, I eventually found what I was looking for. Attoseconds, zeptoseconds, and I believe the other one is called a yoctosecond, and I don’t know if we do have a name for that other infinitesimal sliver of time that follows. I bet I can travel even more precise than that, but I have to get back to my main focus.

Navigating my way back through the menus until I returned to what I needed, I inputted the necessary commands and soon I was ready for yet another trip through the space-time vortex. Taking a deep breath, I lightly pressed down on the activation button and I disappeared from where I was standing, flying through the vortex as the watch pulled me to exactly where I wanted to go.

All of time was in all around me. Every point in history, that ever was or ever will be flashing by in an instance, every decade being pushed aside by the next, every century ending with just another sunset, every millennium ending with that last second before ticking over to the next.

That single second, if you study it, is full of so much activity, so much life, joy and sadness, and cause and effect. There’s so much going on in a single second that it’s too much to take in all at once, I cannot begin to imagine what can be done in two. You can do so much in such a short amount of time, it’s unbelievable, but I can’t get wrapped up in it all. I must focus on why I entered the Vortex in the first place. I must find that specific point in time and exit back into the world once more. I’m so tempted to stay in the Vortex, study as much of time as I can, take it all in, remain in here for as long as it takes to learn everything, but I must leave.

Finally, I find what I’m looking for. An apocalyptic nightmare, full of burning buildings, scared, screaming people, and Monsters that are having far too much fun. Anger boils up inside me the longer I look at this scene. The damage that Magician has caused. How dare he unleash such beasts upon this world? I must stop this from happening.

The Vortex is thinning out, fading away, leaving me behind on planet Earth once more. Of all the times I’ve travelled through here, it’s a wonder why I haven’t been captivated by it before. It’s beautiful, colourful. Incredible.

Then it’s gone. The door to all of time closing behind me, leaving me in a world that once was stunning and bright but is now bleak, dark and heavy on the eyes. I know I have the power to simply reset time, but I want to repair the damage that was lost right here, right now. I want to learn from this, give me a message that I can overcome anything. This world has seen its darkest moment, and I’m the one to spread the light.

No one or no Monsters notice me. I don’t want them to. I want to do this in the shadows. When this is all over, they won’t remember this. They won’t know the nightmare that had happened. They’ll carry on with their lives, without worrying about it all ending in a matter of moments. I don’t want them to notice me because I don’t want them to know about me before they forget. I know that sounds strange, borderline contradictive, but I feel that is the best way. The only way.

I’m not sure how, though. I need the power to reset the world back to what it was, but I’m not sure what that is. I could really do with some help from Interface right about now.

Something ignited in my hand. I looked down and saw a bright white light pulsating brilliantly.

‘Interface?’ I called, my tone of voice asking what the heck this was, and when he appeared in front of me, he answered.

‘You requested my help. You would like to rebuild this world back to how it was, and I have given you that power.’

In the palm of my hand I hold the power to reset time. And that is exactly what I am about to do. The power buzzes through me, relieving any stress of trying to figure out what I want, I just knew all I had to do was concentrate on precisely what I wanted. I focused on the world I want. The ball of bright white light slowly increases in size, brightness, and strength. I’m rising high into the air, feeling the wind against my face. I close my eyes, making the image of the world I want denser.

With a single blast in every direction, I unleash the light. It spreads around the world, engulfing everything in its path. I see nothing but white light in front of me as I continue to focus on the world I want. I can feel the Space-Time Vortex running through my veins, building up in my hand. I wait until I feel the time is right before unleashing it upon the world. The image that I have in my mind’s eye is stronger than ever as the Vortex covers the world, repairing it, resetting it to what it was before the Monsters came.

When the world was ready, I cut off my powers and the white light starts dimming down before fading away entirely, the energy from the Vortex disappears back to where it came from. A world before the Monsters started to appear. It was only now that I realise how beautiful everything looked; how many different shades of green were on a single leaf and a blade of grass, how many different species that lived in my back garden, and how many differences there were between the most same looking things. Before, I was extremely nervous, hardly ever left my house, and now here I am, noticing how much I’ve missed, how much I’ve taken for granted. I made a promise to myself there and then to go out more, see the sights, explore as much as I can, spend as much time with the people I care about and who care about me: My parents, Tom, Amy; I never want to waste a single second every again.

Then it was gone. The world was back to how it was before. I stood in the centre of a busy street, watching as hundreds of people went about their lives, not knowing what just happened, what I had just done. Now they can finish the sentences that were cut short, the conversations that never happened, and finish the tasks that went incomplete. I watched them walk by without a care in the world except for their own problems, and I was happy.

In a way, I could thank Magician because he allowed me to open my eyes and see the world for what it is. He tested me, pushed me beyond anything that I ever expected, taught me to never give up no matter what, and that there will always be people supporting me through the toughest of times. I will then repay them with my never-ending support. It’s the least I could do.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)

Mum's Monday: Bridget Jones - Mad about the Boy, written by Helen Fielding

This book was first published in 2013, 14 years after the book Bridget Jones the Edge of Reason back in 1999.

We now see Bridget, having married Mark Darcy, now widowed in her fifties and left to bring up their 2 children, Billy and Mabel, 6 and 4. This book sees Bridget coping/dealing with single parenthood, getting back into the dating game, through dating sites, and trying to write a screen play.

Mark however, hasn’t left Bridget destitute, she has a nice house, a nanny Chloe, a lifestyle where it seems it doesn’t matter if she works or not and Billy and Mabel go to a private school. There are some funny moments but some of it seems a bit unbelievable and therefore not real, which does knock the consistency of the series around a bit. Any problems with finding a baby sitter are miraculously solved. During one night it was Daniel Cleaver looking after the two children, but she questioned this decision when, by the end of the book, he ended up in a clinic, having mistaken Washing up liquid for an alcoholic drink. If he was that out of it on his bender to do that he would’ve passed out along while before his mistake, surely.

One of my favourite parts is when Bridget takes Mabel to the doctors with a bad finger, and whilst there, Mabel finds some sexual health leaflets and using the technique she has leant at school she spells out the word Gonorrhoea and then announces it in full. Bridget quickly put the leaflets in her bag, but forgets about them until she is in the company of Mr Wallaker, (a teacher at Mabel’s school) who notices them and thinks it is strange when Bridget announces the leaflets are in actual fact Mabel’s. Mr Wallaker’s reactions completed the two scenes.

Despite this, the book is a bit depressing. I can see where Helen the author was going with this but I don’t think she quite got there as much as the previous instalments. Yes, we would like to think that if anything bad happened to us or our family that the ones left behind would be well looked after, but I feel this book is a stretch to believe that problems would get solved so quickly.

We see her struggling with dating again and wondering if she is being unfaithful to Mark, or if she is actually ready to date again. This part is done well and realistic to the situation, but again it has a depressing edge to it. The book does have a happy ending but how it gets there is questionable.

I can see why Bridget Jones’s baby was made into a film instead of this one. The baby one has much more of an upbeat storyline and more believable.

You could say this one in chronological order comes after Bridget jones’s baby so this book could be made into a film but if they do I hope that they achieve what Helen missed and make it more realistic and less depressing. Although widowhood is naturally a depressing subject, and the situations along the way do happen to some degree, it does however, make me wonder why the storyline in this book was written this way in the first place.

Jerry's Journal: First Day

We have a new member of the family. Jerry, a Staffordshire Bull Terrier, born 10/11/2016, and he is adorable, excited, and adorably excited.

The moment we stepped in through the front door, he was sniffing all around and it wasn’t long before he had settled himself in, following us around, and making himself at home.

Jerry having a sniff at my phone

Trying to see what mum has for dinner.

 Snuggling up with mum and me.

After all that excitement, he's worn himself out.

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)

The Watch – Part 145:

I rose into the air, a white haze wrapped around me. I stopped when I had every Monster in sight. They were looking at me, wanting to attack me, rip me to shreds and devour me. The white haze around me grew brighter the more I charged up my attack. Magician knew exactly what I was about to do.

With one magnificent burst of dense white energy, extending outwards in every direction, shooting the speed of light, engulfing every single one of the Monsters in turn. For a few moments, all that could be seen was nothing but white as the Monsters slowly disintegrated, piece by piece until they were only but particles of dust floating chaotically in amidst the white energy. Then the particles dissolved into atoms, then the atoms broke down into nothing, wiping them from existence entirely.

When my attack eventually faded away, nothing was left behind. Silence. It was hard to imagine there ever being many hundreds, maybe even thousands of Monsters there in the first place. All of them, wiped out in a single moment. The air around me settled back down as I slowly descended to the ground once more, landing in front of Magician. He struggled to comprehend what just happened. He had the upper hand. His plan was working. It had worked. He had gotten inside my head and won. Then he would be able to take the watch from me. That was his plan. And it failed.

He tried to figure out when it all went wrong.

‘What part?’ he asked. ‘What part of my plan did you take and turn it on its head?’ The tables have turned He’s asking me at what point did I start to think that I could do that. In truth, everything about my giving up was true. I genuinely believed that I had lost. It was my parents and Amy who stayed by my side, giving me the support I needed to realise that losing was all in the mind. It was when I was waking up that I formulated my plan. I increased my intelligence and figured out his tactics, his plans and his ways. I knew from that moment on that he would do anything to try and get inside my head, and win by sneaking in. That was my final victory. And he knows it. He’ll never know at when I started to turn the tables, and that is going to eat him from the inside. He knew that he was defeated. There was nothing he can do from now on.

‘What are you going to do to me?’ he asked numbly.

‘Nothing,’ I said calmly. ‘I’m going to let you leave.’

‘Just like that?’ he asked.

‘Just like that,’ I confirmed.’

He didn’t try and more mind games. He just accepted his defeat.

A purple doorway opened up behind him and he spun around on the balls of his heels, silently walking through. The purple door closed, leaving no trace of there ever being a disturbance here. The air was still. I stood there, looking at the emptiness stretching as far as the eye could see in every direction. It was hard to believe that there was ever a fight here. It was such a relief to finally have him gone so he will never cause any more havoc.

But my job is far from done. Magician might be out of the equation, but the world is still in ruins. I now have the task of rebuilding the world, saving everyone who were unfortunate enough to feel the Monster’s wrath. There was a simple way of doing so. Changing the future, creating a new timeline, but by going back in time would mean going back to when the Monsters roamed freely, where I’m still questioning myself. If Magician learns that I’m somewhere else in this world, he might latch onto that and run with it, destroying everything that I’ve worked so hard for. There has to be another way. Simply rebuilding what we lost isn’t enough. I will not accept that. I want everyone who died to be alive again. Magician will not beat me even with the tinniest of victories.

And then, once I’ve completed my mission, I can go back home where Amy would be sitting, waiting, none the wiser as to what happened. And then I can amend any confusion that Tom has against me, bring our friendship back to what it once was.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)