First Impressions of Bratislava...

In mid-June, I tagged along on yet another business trip, this time to Slovakia where Jimmy was asked to speak about concurrrent design at a NATO Conference. We flew in late to Vienna on a Monday night and then drove to Bratislava—the largest city in Slovakia and one of the smallest capitals in Europe with a population of just 430,000—arriving around midnight at our hotel.   

We were fortunate that our hotel included breakfast and secure parking, which allowed us to spend a few hours exploring the city without having to worry about our luggage. Immediately across from the hotel, we were greeted with this billboard, which is easy to understand without knowing a word of Slovak.

The immediate area surrounding our hotel wasn’t very impressive, with some buildings in need of a major overhaul.

Further along things got nicer and more colorful.

Reflections on our 14th Year - Part 2...

We are happy that once again our list of highs is much longer than our list of lows. Perhaps no surprise that much of this focuses around traveling:

• Family Travel: French Alps - relaxing week in the snow, hot tub and sauna with Vivynne, Tony, Ariana and Max; Switzerland - quick stops at Jim and Nina’s in Geneva and Bill and Nina’s in Lucerne; Scotland - Fringe Festival, Edinburgh Red Dress Hash, Eurohash Cruise exceeded all expectations, dancing for hours, Ashlynn officially become a Ballbreaker, celebrating Veronica’s birthday in Glasgow
• Jimmy/Melissa/Veronica Travel: England - Veronica’s graduation at University of East Anglia, exploring her new city of Exeter, seeing Hamilton in London
• Melissa/Ashlynn Travel: Seoul - cocktails at the tallest building in Korea, holding a raccoon at a raccoon cafe; Melbourne - Penguin Parades, cheap sushi, feeding kangaroos; Sydney - Bondi to Coogee Coastal Walk, hashing together twice, more sushi
• Jimmy/Melissa Travel: Manhattan - staying on Times Square; Belgium - Belgian Nash Hash and incredible Zombie Hash in Charleroi; Hannover - meeting up with Melissa and Pieter at German Nash Hash; London - Camilla’s 50th, trekking three days of the Thames Path with Carlin and Kent, Halloween Hash; Slovakia - exploring Banska Bystrica; Stockholm - staying in a hostel on an old boat, hashing
• Jimmy Travel: England - solo running trip in the Lakes District; US - meeting up with various Hash friends while on business trips in California and DC
• Melissa Travel: California - one visit to family on my own and another with Jimmy along for a few days, slumber parties with my sisters; Canberra - visiting Jane, seeing wild kangaroos, hiking, biking and snorkeling; Boston - Urban Art Museum, JFK Library and MIT with Sally, steamed lobster at the Boston Hash
• Veronica Travel: UK - camping in Lakes District and Devon, visiting David in Aberdeen and Ryan and Charlotte in Hastings, exploring Cornwall along the southwest coastal path, Sunburn Beach Ultimate in Bournemouth, exploring Bristol and Exmouth with Brett
• Ashlynn Travel: Cyprus - flown in for an editorial and fashion show; Seoul - hiking, hanging out at 6th Floor, DJing in front of friends, video shoot with friends for favorite streetwear company; Bali - scuba diving; Sydney - Manly, camping with new friends Soso and Riahn, half marathon, DJ course, photo shoots on the beach; Hong Kong - running into and hanging out with old BSN friends; Berlin - visiting Soso and going to MELT Festival together; Croatia - Dimensions Festival with Sophie; England - visiting Veronica in Norwich, London and Exeter, and Sophie in London; Cairns - Tropic Days Hostel, camping, volunteering at Cairns Turtle Rehabilitation Centre 
• Proud Parents: watching Veronica graduate with a First from UEA; so happy that both girls have embraced being hashers and have hashed on their own
• Jimmy: proud of haring Gay Pride in Amsterdam and Zombie Hash, which ended in a cooling tower in Charleroi, Belgium and was the perfect way to celebrate 30 years of hashing (and has since been named the Best Trail of 2019 for BMPH3); still running at the front of the pack
• Melissa: finally seeing Carlin play the harp in a concert, hashing in nine countries, discovering my superpower—controlling the weather while hashing, and establishing date nights with Sally and John
• Veronica: achieving a First at UEA, Grad Ball with UEA friends, third place win at Women’s Indoor Nationals, learning to fly a drone and making some kick ass videos, experimenting further with self-portraiture, internship at Rubies in the Rubble in London and staying with Camilla and Ariana, volunteering at Food Cycle and at organic farms in Cornwall and Suffolk, starting aerial classes and taking a flying trapeze class, cooking for participants at Extinction Rebellion protest in London, successfully avoiding flying, starting a Master’s in Food Security and Sustainable Agriculture at Exeter, joining Expedition Society, first American boyfriend and introducing him to the Hash, meeting new vegan friends through Instagram, uni field trips to farms, veg boxes
• Ashlynn: embracing traveling alone as a backpacker, getting hired as a bartender and waitress on a tropical island paradise in the Great Barrier Reef, first boyfriend, Dekmantel with Sarah, ADE in Amsterdam, upgraded DJ deck
• Visitors: None of our visitors stayed for long, but we were happy to host Phil, Jim, Soso, and Stacie

Happy Hanukkah! Merry Christmas! Happy New Year!

Reflections on Our 14th Year - Part 1

Our 14th Anniversary of living in the Netherlands was on November 22, but for the first time Jimmy and I celebrated alone since the four of us might not be together again until summer. Thus we bypassed our tradition of eating at La Laterna in Scheveningen, because we couldn’t bear to eat there without the girls. We cheated and made the list of our highs and lows over the last year, and then coordinated with the girls on their sections. As usual, here are our lows first:

• No idea when the four of us will be together again
• Lack of time for family holidays
• Political train wreck in both the US and UK
• Jimmy: best analogy of work situation—juggling lots of balls but instead of catching them, getting hit in the head; losing iPhone into Amsterdam canal while trying to remove trash; cracked ribs after falling on Ballbreaker at Belgian Nash Hash; getting lost on Red Dress Hash in Edinburgh
• Melissa: nightmare paperwork necessary for Dutch visa extension; Gillian moving to Scotland and Kati losing her boyfriend; forgetting to get an Australian visa before going to airport; food poisoning in Seoul
• Veronica: leaving Norwich, Aye-Aye and Jason; continuing collapse of biodiversity, natural ecosystems and the climate that sustains us!; Ashlynn opting not to go to uni in Plymouth so they could practically be neighbors; missing Kati after being away from home for eight months
• Ashlynn: pinched nerve in neck; problems with Chinese modeling agency was a sad way to end a fun year of modeling; broken laptop; lack of vegan options in Seoul
• Melissa/Jimmy: Steve and Patti moving back to the US, post-travel weight gain
• Veronica/Ashlynn: first multi-day festival together was cancelled

Off to China...

On June 17, Ashlynn flew to Shenzhen, China, where she was supposed to model for at least two months. While I had been very hesitant to send her there, the Vice President of IMG called me to stress how positive they were that this was a good idea. Sadly, things did not go well and the Chinese agency had Ashlynn in tears within days, saying that her thighs were too big, her hair was too blonde, and she was too tall. This was quite surprising since they had been sent recent measurements, photos and videos. They panicked when they realized she was discussing her frustrations with IMG and sent her home just two weeks after she arrived. After so many great experiences over the past year of modeling, it was very disappointing that the year came to an early close on such a sour note.

It was always interesting to see which photos the different agencies chose to feature on Ashlynn’s comp cards, her calling cards that are left behind at castings. I was surprised by this choice by the Chinese agency as the coloring was so yellow.

Here’s the back of the card, which used photos taken within the past six months: two from Australia, one from Seoul and one from Athens. The top middle photo was taken in 2016, just before Ashlynn’s 16th birthday. Considering how many photos were taken of her in the past year, many of which I managed to track down and send to IMG, I have no idea why IMG sent them such an old one to choose from. 

The Chinese agency was not alone in using old photos. I was completely baffled why IMG Sydney chose an even older photo for the front of her card—this was taken when she was just 14 years old. It seems like false advertising to present such an old photo.

At least the back was taken just two months before she arrived in Sydney. 

In late October 2018, Ace Models in Athens did the same thing with this photo of 14-year-old Ashlynn...

...plus three others from that same year. Only the top right photo was taken just one month before arriving in Athens with her new blonder hair. 

Also guilty was IMG Paris, which used two photos from when she was 14 for her comp cards during Paris Fashion Week. Granted, there likely wasn’t time to get cards printed after they arranged for her hair to be lightened, but surely they could have used some more recent photos.

More Fun with Aye-Aye...

Veronica really enjoyed her first Charity Shop Hop. The concept was simple: everyone wore clothes that they were willing to donate while rummaging through several charity shops for something to wear to the nightclub on campus that evening.

While some of the outfits were quite tacky, Veronica found a lovely red dress for just £10.

She got dressed up for the UEA Sports Awards; sadly her team went home empty-handed.

 Here she is with Saki, her Aye-Aye “daughter”...

...and at the Aye-Aye End-of-Year BBQ.

Good-Bye Aye-Aye...

Veronica’s final Ultimate Frisbee tournament was Sunburn Beach Tournament in Bournemouth. The team made tie-dyed shirts and Veronica, of course, wore her flower crown.

It was a very fun weekend despite wind and a poor performance by the Aye-Ayes, who weren’t used to playing on sand. 

Hard to believe her time with Aye-Aye was coming to an end.

This photo was taken during a cheerleading competition across sports teams. They had fun performing to We’re All in This Together from High School Musical. The girls in legit cheerleading outfits were along to train the team.

It was also the end of her time as Publicity Secretary, a job she really enjoyed. 

She’s come a long way since those early Ultimate days at the BSN. 

Final Aussie Shoot...

Ashlynn’s last shoot was just two days before flying to China for her next on-stay. It was her first beach shoot at sunset—a test shoot for a stylist she had worked with on an editorial in Seoul. Once again, these photos were never published, so these are merely behind-the-scenes shots posted by the crew.

It was her fourth shoot with the same photographer, so again a sign that there is loyalty within the industry if you can just manage to stay in town long enough.

Overall, Ashlynn had an incredible time over her three-month stay in Australia. Little did we know when she first planned her trip that it would be a life-altering experience as she has since pushed off university for yet another year in order to go back to Northern Australia to work in the hospitality industry. More on that later...