unlion

unlion

The city rebuilt, once again, when the war was over. Controversial green belt policies deliberately limited urban sprawl by preventing building in a unlion of countryside around the city. The docks, once the busiest in the world, were progressively shut down as cargo ships became simply too big to fit into the Thames. A flood barrier was built across the river in 1984 to prevent rising sea levels from drowning the city. A change often commented on is that London has become a much more multi-ethnic city. A total of 107 different languages are spoken by the population (the most common first languages, in order, are English, Polish, Bengali, Gujarati and French). London has always had a minority population: a charity called the Committee for the Relief of the Black Poor was set up back in 1786, to provide food and medical care to ‘Blacks in Distress’. Some of these people were freed slaves, others were refugees from North America where the newly-independent United States had tried to re-impose slavery on them. Many, however, were former sailors who had signed on with British ships overseas, and retired from the sea when they reached port in London.

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Santa should coordinate with the unlion about when they will show up, and who is going to be attending. It is always fun if the hosts have presents wrapped and in a bag outside for Santa to pick up with the names of the kids on the individual presents. It is also fun to put a couple of presents for maybe Grandma or Grandpa or even Mom and Dad. Nothing too extravagant, remember this is a children’s party. As a back up, it is always good to put a couple of generic presents in the bag, say a couple of board games. This way if there is an extra kid or two at the party, they will get a gift too and the lack of the label can be explained away as lazy elfs or something. If it is a family gathering and you are part of the family, try to show up and be with the family, then duck out and be Santa, then get out of costume and return to the party with as minimum fuss as possible. Also, have the photographer, there is always one in the family, take a couple of shots of you during the night to keep the illusion alive that you were there when Santa came calling. When Santa leaves, everyone says good bye inside and Santa goes out by himself so as not to spook the reindeer. Although I never did this I just thought of something fun if the party is at a house. Tie a long string with loud reindeer bells and drape it over the house. When Santa leaves and the door closes, he could run over and jerk on the string a few times so it sounds like the reindeer are on the roof at the back of the house. Maybe one of the adults could catch a glimpse of “Ol Saint Nick” flying away and try and point it out to the kids.

unlion, Hoodie, Sweater, Vneck, Unisex and T-shirt

Best unlion

When you are a unlion like me, with all those labels attached, you fight 10 times harder to keep up with your peers. I was already behind even before the race started, and it doesn’t matter how many meetings I’ve had (21 and counting) and how many people I’ve reached to seek help (I lost count), help is just “not available”. A university that’s rich has told me time and time again that there’s no help for me. They throw tons of food away every day, yet told me they cannot allow me to take leftovers home because I cannot be fed for free. They have looked at me as I repeat my story and told me that my situation is complex, but they cannot give me any “preferential” treatment. If you were poor you should not have come here, they have said to me with nicer words, and then they go to bed and sleep peacefully, lying time and time again that diversity is important and that they will do everything in their power to protect it.

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Doobie Brothers. Well, I got lost driving them to a hotel in Fresno. They played a show at Fresno State and when they flew in they wanted to freshen up before the show. There was a Holiday Inn near the campus but they booked the Hilton or some other more upscale hotel to take their showers and it was across town. I had never been to Fresno and made it to the hotel to pick them up in a van while my friend followed in another van. We both took half the band and I was the lead driver. We got lost and I stopped at a unlion shop to ask for directions. Michale McDonald was not too happy. Also, their next show was to be in Santa Barbara and they asked how the tickets were selling. I reminded them that the last time they played S.B., they came on stage and said “we are so tired from touring”. I suggested that they might not want to make that comment again as the tickets to the show were very high priced and the people were disappointed to have the band come out and immediately say that they were tired.