Hiatus Direction 2016 - Silent Spring

March & April - Silent Spring

As Spring unfolded, the boys started to retreat a little bit from the public eye.  So for the rest of this series, I'm going to be able to cover whole seasons in one post starting with this one.  Yay!!!  So this one is going to cover most of Spring, specifically the notable events of March and April.

Here is a recap of the recap of 2016 so far.


Hiatus Direction 2016 - Preamble: Birth Love and Death
Hiatus Direction 2016 - January Part 1 - Freddie Reign
Hiatus Direction 2016 - January Part 2 - Into the Wilderness
Hiatus Direction 2016 - February Part 1 - Secret Love Song #1 Louelle
Hiatus Direction 2016 - February Part 2 - Secret Love Song #2 Cheriam


March & April - The Hiatus Settles In


In 2016 the boys of One Direction were on Hiatus obviously, as that is the subject of this series.  That means that, quite often they would be MIA for long periods of time.  With the Winter over, and the Hiatus settling in, most of the boys were starting to take advantage of their break.  Increasingly as the year went by, for some of the boys the MIA periods would go for weeks.

So here are some of the glimpses we saw that Spring.

HARRY'S MAKING PLANS

This tendency to disappear from the public eye for days at a time was especially true for Harry.  There were several months of 2016 for which there were only fleeting glimpses of him.  And that included the Spring.

When he was spotted, it was usually in his usual Malibu haunts such as Nobu Restaurant:

<---  Hanging with his usual crowd outside on Mar 16

  <--- And again on March 20 in those rad shades.

April was more of the same:



 <--- Getting gas in Brentwood April 3


But even with these sparse sightings in public, Harry was busy shaping his future.  On March 11, Variety announced that Harry had won a part in the upcoming Christopher Nolan movie Dunkirk.  MUCH more on that in the Summer...   Which meant that... 

 HARRY STYLES WAS ABOUT TO BECOME A MOVIE STAR!!!

What's more the rumors of the bidding war between record companies for Harry's services continued unabated.  Much more on that later in the year as well.  The most consistent rumors came from Hits Daily Double and Billboard - That Harry had, or was about to sign with Columbia.  Which meant that...

HARRY STYLES WAS ALSO ABOUT TO BECOME A ROCK STAR TOO!!!!!



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NIALL - The Wanderer Returns

Next, let's see what Niall was up to that Spring.  Basically, after the Australian Open, Niall disappeared into the Wilderness on a backpacking trip to several countries far away from Ireland.  They included Australia, Thailand and Vietnam.  The fandom only saw small, occasional glimpses of him.

The beauty is, that that is the way he wanted it.  And he was having a blast.  Good on him!



<--- A couple of those glimpses.



 <--- He posted this lovely selfie of himself on a beach in the Phillipines

When he got back, his focus was on GOLF again.  He once again attended the Masters Tournament in Augusta Georgia.  Niall was becoming a fixture on the Golf circuit..

 <--- Back at the Masters

and other than that, when he returned from the backbacking trip, he appeared to continue to relax and enjoy himself.



 ,<----  And there was that time he was caught by a Pap peeing on a wall in L.A for no reason.  

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

But it turned out there was much more ahead in 2016 for Niall then Backpacking, late night hijinx and golf.  Including a surprise twist that nobody saw coming that we will see unfold in September.

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LIAM - Setting Up Housekeeping


I covered Liam quite extensively in February.  But like the others, following the big public splash of the reveal of his relationship with Cheryl, Liam was starting to turn quite private with his life, most of the time.   Probably that was in part because of the negative response he and Cheryl got from so many of his "fans". 

That being said, the glimpses we did get, were in fact, mostly with Cheryl.  They went on a high profile date early in March, which, I think based on the hate they got, may have convinced them to be lower key about their relationship.  Seriously the fandom was not taking it well at all based on the sheer cruelty of the IG and Twitter comments alone.

 
<--- Needless to say the Liam/Ziam fans were NOT impressed with here LOVE necklace.  And the expression on his face while being papped was described as "Tense" and therefore the whole thing was inevitably "FAKE".  This is 1D fandom, so you know the drill.


<---  They were, never the less, very cute on social media.  What little they posted.

But even so, the fandom hopes that this would turn out be be a short term thing were being dashed with each appearance.  But the fandom was going to have to get used to Cheriam, because they weren't going anywhere anytime soon. 

In fact, interestingly, pregnancy rumors would surround this couple from the very beginning.  The rumors were of course unfounded... In the Spring...  Spoiler alert:  Just wait till the Fall.  ;)

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LOUIS:  The Exception



Finally, lets talk about Louis .  Unlike the other boys, Louis was all over the place that Spring.  He seemed to be everywhere, doing everything.  With everybody. 



 <--- He was papped quite a few time at a shopping mall called the Calabasas Commons, including the above picture taken on March 16 pushing Freddie in a stroller.  Because Boybander with a Baby will never get old, the Paps were all over it!!


<--- His sister Lottie seemed to be staying with him because he was also often seen out and about with her, such as taking trips to Starbucks for coffee.  Picture taken March 1.

<--- And of course he was papped out and about with Danielle, here on March 6.  They really were very pretty



Finally towards the end of March, Louis' extended family from the UK, paid a visit to Los Angeles so that the whole clan could meet baby Freddie.  Louis' mother Jay brought everyone including her husband, her parents, and her six other children including her two year old twins, Ernest and Doris.


 <--- The entire clan including Danielle was seen at the Calabasas shopping mall on an family outing on April 4. 

 <--- and baby Freddie in his carrier was there too.

The family also took the time to take a Family Portrait during their visit to Los Angeles.  Here we see Jay's beautiful and happy family.  Pictured below is Jay with her seven children, (Lottie, Felicite, twins Daisy and Phoebe, twins Ernest and Doris and of course Louis.)  And there also was her first grandchild, Freddie Tomlinson, age 2 months on the lap of his proud father.  

I'm sure that they are very grateful that they had the opportunity for this photograph.  The rest of the year was going to be harsh for them.  And the end not as happy as the beginning.






Sometimes I wonder if the Universe itself has a way of foreshadowing  some of the inexplicable things it does.  Why else would Jay's eyes be closed in this picture.   It is as though the Universe decided to give the world a heartbreaking spoiler alert.

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So, that was the summary of the Spring 2016, Year One of the Hiatus.  I'm going to do another rather long post for the month of May, But after that I'm hoping to wiz through the Autumn and on to the end of the year.