After doing my thing at BONDCON-V in Munich, I hopped on the ICE (Inter-City Express) and went to Dortmund to overnight there before heading over to see LATOWSKI and get fitted for my chastity belt. The weather was great and the scenery beautiful while we zoomed up the Rhine valley at 250 km/hour.

As much as Germans themselves despise Deutsche Bahn, I am totally impressed with the efficiency of their system and have nothing but praise for it. The trips were comfortable, smooth and speedy and come with none of the hassles one now encounters at airports the world over.

The LATOWSKI studio is located in a small town called Nordebogge, about a 30 minute train ride from Dusseldorf Hbf (Main Train Station), and is a pretty little town located out in the country.

Inside the innocent appearing home is a wonderland of superbly-crafted metal work; some of which can be seen in the images below. These folks exemplify the very best of German craftsmanship, and their finished products are beautifully done, and utterly secure ... as I have been discovering.

The model of chastity belt I ordered (the fitting process took nearly an hour and a half) comes with all the goodies: extra long securing posts with provision for locking-on wrist cuffs and/or positioning/securing chains, front and back panel restraint rings that can be also be used for wrists, cuffs or leashes, remote Discipline/Control/Training, electric butt plug, and finally, an extra receiver unit that I have since adapted for use with breast/nipple electrodes, thus enabling additional D/C/T.

Both Mario and Mona are model railroad folks (another endearing aspect, in my view) and have an INCREDIBLE set- up on the main floor of their home. They told me that when it's up and running full blast, it takes five people at separate control stations to make it all function.

After spending a very pleasant afternoon with them, I headed back to Duisburg to meet my very good friend Pupett and stay over at her place for a day or two.

- Off to see Rubber's Finest with Pupett -

Pupett is a beautiful lady, both physically and as a person and we get along very well, having known each other for a few years now. The day after I arrived and we had a great dinner, renewing our friendship, we headed off to Langenfeld ... the home of RUBBER'S FINEST, to meet with Ingo and Doro, the owners,

RUBBER'S FINEST makes the very best of heavy duty rubber toys and I cannot recommend them highly enough. If you want a proper helmet or any of the other stuff they make, this is the place to see.

The above being said, take care to buy directly from them. Unfortunately, there are ass holes out there who have attempted to copy their designs, and in so doing failed miserably. What can be obtained on e-Bay, as knock-off's of their designs are just awful in terms of quality and finishing, as can be seen in the images below. What is shown is the Twin Set knock-off and it IS utter crap, to be sure.

Talk about a candy store! Both Pupett and I were awed and amazed by the gear that RF makes, and it IS very intense stuff to be entombed in.

Above left is an integrated straight jacket and helmet, complete with a breath control/aroma sack and once fastened into that, there ain't no way out. Above right is an absolutely wild sleep sack that can be combined with any of the helmets RF makes and you can see from Pupett's expression that she is in awe of the sleep sack ... and she is a hard lady to impress.

And then, she tried on the Ultimate Helmet ... it weighs about 4 kg and is incredibly restrictive. After trying it on, you can see just how impressed she was with it :-).

I tried it on also and got a real rush from the experience, but since I already have a Twin Set, I wasn't about to purchase one of these.

Below, Ingo assists Pupett into another of their creations and she enjoyed every minute of it.

This particular helmet is truly something else. The red bands you see around the head and face contain steel boning and then, after the helmet is laced on and secured, a pump is attached to the filler fitting at the top and the internal membrane can be inflated to whatever level of comfort, or discomfort, is desired. The whole ensemble is a mind boggling trip.

Pupett was a happy camper, sealed into the helmet, blind and nearly deaf, while Ingo and Doro and I sat around and got acquainted.

It was soon time for a different helmet, one with vision ports, and once Pupett had been fully sealed into it, we decided to go for a small walk.

I think you'll agree that both of these ladies are naturals in front of a camera and I had a happy time taking the pix.

We didn't REALLY go for a drive with Pupett in this outfit, but one can imagine the reactions of other drivers if we had :-).

- And On To Tenerife -

The next day I climbed back on the silver bird and 5 hours later landed in Tenerife, to visit with my good friend Matthias.

Of course our first stop was for a celebratory beer and some snackies at a local bar, then it was off to the finca to get settled in.

A couple of days later with the good weather, we set off to drive up to the summit of Teide, the central volcano of Tenerife and it was a wonderful trip, revealing a lot of the geology of the island. As can be seen in the images below, we were well above the cloud deck.

I got to see the huge steel cockroach, then on the way back, we passed through a rock cut and got to see the layers of the various lava flows (27, so far).

A day later we drove up the freeway to Santa Cruz, another pretty place, to meet with Victoria, the good friend I'd met last year when I visited. It was a great meeting and evening and she was just as much fun to meet again.

Matthias had some gear that needed cleaning and so I sat out on the patio working away at it and drinking beer, then to take a break, I worked on the initial engineering/concept drawings for the Storage Case-Coffin project.

A couple of days before I left, there was a festival over at a nearby town called Granadilla and Matthias had arranged for a gathering of the local scene community to both enjoy a great meal and then the fireworks later. MADAME TINA and Dieter were there as well and we had a great time chatting and renewing our friendship.

The fireworks were pretty spectacular and went on for a long time. When they were done, we all retired to our table and had a few more wobbly-pops and then headed home. Quite a day.

I needed that 9 day break in Tenerife after bouncing around Germany for ten days and feeling akin to a hard-used ping-pong ball, but then it was time to return to Germany for a day or so before catching my connecting flight back to Vancouver.

I had a day of just goof-off time in Frankfurt and so my good friend Frank took me off to see some of the local sights, then we met Corinna at the airport.

Once more it was back onto another bloody airplane and off I went, heading from Frankfurt to Toronto and then picking up the connecting flight to Vancouver. It's a long day making that trip folks and not a hell of a lot of fun.

Middle and right pictures above show the final approach to Vancouver and I was damned glad to see it.

All in all it was a wonderful trip. I got to attend an event I'd wanted to go to for a few years, and I met all of my old friends and re-connected with them. A super time.