iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

I lived 43 years on this earth by the following creed: Thou Shalt Not Kill A Living Thing, Not Even An Insect. After 6 weeks living in Vietnam, Fuck All Those Insects. I have a can of Raid and I’m not afraid to use it.

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Hels @heledd.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

My commute home from work is a bit different these days.

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Hels @heledd.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

The fact that in Vietnam I can have mutually comprehensible, grammatically correct conversations entirely through the medium of the Google Translate app is pretty ironic since I’m here as an English teacher. Makes me feel kinda surplus to requirements, to be honest.

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Hels @heledd.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

My new neighbourhood. I’m still expecting to see Wales every time I open my curtains so you can imagine my surprise when I wake up every morning and see this instead.

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Hels @heledd.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

More Saigon. Still discombobulated but falling deeper and deeper in love with this beautifully mad city with each passing day.

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Hels @heledd.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Turns out it gets a bit wet in Ho Chi Minh City sometimes

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Hels @heledd.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

For anyone who’s ever wondered: durian smells to such an extreme that you can individually wrap a durian sweet in plastic, store the whole lot inside a second plastic bag & seal the plastic bag inside a zipped backpack if you want- you’ll still stink out a 10-foot radius within a jumbo jet.

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Hels @heledd.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Been in HCMC for a few days now. Discombobulated but surviving.

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Hels @heledd.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

@rockstargames.com, you bunch of wizards. I love you.

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Hels @heledd.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

I’m moving to Vietnam in 6 days. By this time next week I’ll be standing in District 1 of HCMC, alone & starving hungry after a 12hr flight, staring at a tasty-looking restaurant on the other side of the street & wishing I had the balls to try crossing the road.

static.klipy.com

Busy Motorcycle Traffic in Vietnam Intersection

ALT: Busy Motorcycle Traffic in Vietnam Intersection

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Reposted by Hels

Claire Willett @clairewillett.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

but the nice thing is that you don't have to be rich to do it like you can be the Dolly Parton of wherever you are just by supporting your local library or donating to nonprofits that serve trans kids or putting food in free fridges or wearing a mask when you fly

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Micah @rincewind.run · 25/08/2026

dolly parton taught millions of children to read dolly parton raised millions of dollars for cancer research and disaster relief dolly parton stood by the lgbtq community her entire life dolly parton personally helped fund the moderna vaccine if there was a right side of something she was on it

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Hels @heledd.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Fires ripping through people’s houses and trains derailing from buckled tracks. In a single day. In the U.K. But sure, climate change is a myth.

static.klipy.com

Im Ok Im Fine: Penguin in Fire

ALT: Im Ok Im Fine: Penguin in Fire

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Hels @heledd.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Seven weeks until I pick up sticks for the other side of the planet for I-don’t-know-how-long. Planning and Preparation has now moved very definitively into the OH MY GOD WHAT THE FUCK AM I DOING phase.

static.klipy.com

Inside Out Joy: I Am Positive This Is Crazy!

ALT: Inside Out Joy: I Am Positive This Is Crazy!

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Hels @heledd.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

Dear England: I wouldn’t mind you winning the whole thing in theory. I’d like to be happy for you. But we’ve been living next door to you for long enough to know one thing: that you’d never shut the fuck up about it. Ever. We’d never hear the end of it & you’d be really boring at parties.

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Hels @heledd.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

Someone needs to bring Barthes back to life because I feel genuinely quite sad that he’s not around to wrestle with questions of authorship in the age of generative AI.

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Hels @heledd.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

This dude holding up a placard outside Taylor Swift’s wedding is a sage and a scholar

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Hels @heledd.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

See also: “I’m not sleeping with that cat on the bed.” Ok. Off to the sofa you go then. *sleeps soundly cuddling cat in bed*

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Hels @heledd.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

I still can’t quite believe this happened to me- on the street in Cardiff, of all places. If I’d been wandering around Manhattan or Beverly Hills, fair enough. But I was in Cardiff. In Wales. In my local shopping centre. Life is utterly mad sometimes.

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Hels @heledd.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

Oh, sweet relief! I think it might actually be raining!

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Hels @heledd.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

Oh my god, this dress. I would DIE for this dress.

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Hels @heledd.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

In the history of my life, today will go down as “The Day I Met Quentin Tarantino And Told Him To His Face That He’s My Favourite Filmmaker Of All Time.” For real. That actually happened today. They say you should never meet your heroes but that’s bollocks because he was a total gent.

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Hels @heledd.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

Has anyone checked on the ravens at the Tower lately, because judging from this I think we might be one down.

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Hels @heledd.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

Oh my god this heat though 🥵 🔥 🥵 🔥 🥵 🔥 🥵 🔥 🥵 🔥 🥵 🔥 Only the most stupid among us could look at the forecast for the next three days and conclude that climate change isn’t a thing.

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Hels @heledd.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

Been indulging my love for Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds over the last couple of days. I hate that Peaky Blinders used this song because it used to be MY song. Now it’s fucking everyone’s & their mum’s & rugby boys sing it at the pub. Whatever, I still love it. youtu.be/n-gJgurCyCk?...

youtu.be

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Brother, My Cup Is Empty (Official Audio)

YouTube video by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

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Hels @heledd.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

That bit in Jubilee Street by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds when the strings come in. That’s all.

static.klipy.com

Orgasm Ah

ALT: Orgasm Ah

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Hels @heledd.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

Yesterday morning I had three vaccinations. At lunchtime I had a smear test. In the afternoon a dentist drilled into my face and gave me 2 fillings. I feel like I’ve been passed around a teaching hospital.

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Hels @heledd.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

There are A LOT of straight men out there who see barmaids in exactly the same way. They don’t care if you can pour a decent Guinness or not. They just want to order you around and feel power over you. The more subservient you are, the more they get off on it- and they don’t bother hiding that fact.

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Hels @heledd.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

Just watched Good Morning, Vietnam with my father and it really hit me- for the very first time (maybe a smidgen late)- just how far away from home I’m going to be. Further than I’ve ever been before. And all on my little lonesome too. Scary biscuits.

static.klipy.com

Shrek Summoned to Far Far Away

ALT: Shrek Summoned to Far Far Away

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Hels @heledd.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

It makes me physically sick to think that there is now one man who is worth $1 trillion, so I did some digging. Here are some things that Elon Musk could achieve with a single investment of his net worth: 🧵

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futuredadOfTwo🙋🏻‍♂️ @lacroixboi.dadguy.pro · 10/06/2026

licking my finger to turn the page while i’m reading on my kindle

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Hels @heledd.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

I get it. The longest I’ve ever stayed awake for is 78 hours & it was when Fallout 4 was released. I just sat on my sofa with a PlayStation controller in my hands & my eyes going square, playing Fallout 4 & loving every second. Didn’t even feel sleepy. It’s a genuinely happy gaming memory.

Man sues Fallout 4 developer Bethesda over addiction to game that lost him his job and his wife.

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Hels @heledd.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

Oh my god. Lucky by Radiohead though. I swear this song bends gravity. More than 30 years and it’s STILL turning me into a little transdimensional space goblin every time I hear it.

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Grudgie the Wail @grudgie.bsky.social · 06/06/2026

We quite literally have a whites only refugee program and somehow the media won’t call the Administration white supremacists.

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Hels @heledd.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

Someone needs to tell the Dept. of Education that there is no need for a history teacher to have a grade B in maths & no need for a physics teacher to have a grade B in English. I know so many excellent EFL teachers who are locked out of mainstream teaching for that 1 stupid reason. I’m 1 of them.

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Hels @heledd.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

Been thinking recently: what am I going to miss the most about home when I’m in Vietnam? And the answer I keep coming back to is: The Chocolate Hob Nob. It is the biscuit that surpasses all other biscuits.

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Mandel @91ankarlsson.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

The difference between #Iran and Vietnam is that #Trump knew how to get out of Vietnam.

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Hels @heledd.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

Nobody warned me the bureaucracy involved in moving to another country. I thought it was “find job, get visa, get on plane, live happily ever after” but nope. There’s health checks & documents & rubber stamping of said documents & it’s all presented in a barely intelligible quagmire of jargon. Urgh.

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Brynn Tannehill @brynntannehill.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

This is the darkest accidental thing I have ever seen. The Russian recruiting posters here call it "A Job for Real Men" The name on the blue bus stop placard reads: "Meat Processing Plant"

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Hels @heledd.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

Introduce yourself with 10 bands you’ve seen live IDLES Radiohead David Bowie Tori Amos Nick Cave Pulp The Dandy Warhols Jools Holland Asian Dub Foundation Hole

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Hels @heledd.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

I’m incensed. "I should avoid criminalising these children unnecessarily and understand the effects of their behaviour and support their reintegration into society.’ What he should be doing is supporting victims by giving them justice, not pandering to rapists. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

bbc.co.uk

Teenage boys sentence for raping lone girls in Fordingbridge 'too lenient'

The boys filmed themselves laughing and encouraging each other as they raped two girls in separate attacks.

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Hels @heledd.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

Am I imagining things or is the guy who’s presenting Eurovision tonight the same guy that used to present Eurotrash with Jean-Paul Gaultier in the 90s?

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