Round the Back

*pops up* Uk people, I haven’t seen this linked anywhere and it seems kind of important:

https://getinvolved.dwp.gov.uk/05-policy-group/health-and-disability-green-paper/

DWP Consultation - Shaping Future Support (I do not know why my html typed on an iPad consistently gives me a dud link prefixed by the DW url, so hey there’s the raw link for ya)


*pops back down*

Happy happy birthday, ephemera, I am about to adopt a bat on your behalf and I’m very excited about it! Have a wonderful day and I hope to catch up with you soon 💜💜💜

In this case ( the extremely detailed and concrete memory of Portobello Road Market some time over three decades ago )

I am so relieved. So relieved. The US result was called for Biden while I was in the middle of a Zoom portrait class and ciderpress and trille messaged just as the model visibly twitched onscreen. I ran round the flat yelling and texting people and returned to work - just as the pose finished and the model gleefully told the class the news (their mum had texted and they saw the message during the pose) . The two instructors and those of the class who were unmuted pretty much all cheered; but one of the two Americans in the class (quite politely) said that they weren’t actually happy with the result and the instructors did their best to return us all to some kind of industrious silence. AHAHAHAHA

Not sorry.

American friends, I am thinking of you and the continuing hard times to come. But the insult to humanity that has been squatting in the White House is to be evicted for someone who seems to have a heart, a brain, a moral centre. May the best of the country triumph elsewhere as well and may we all see white supremacism named for what it is and overcome.

Having raised a glass to the absent birthday friend, I’m thinking of all fandom friends and acquaintances and the people who shape you and share with you and maybe I shouldn’t drink any more *mwah* love ya all

ETA: and fuck terfs

So, this is lockdown London in April 2020 and I’m one of the incredibly privileged who can a) work from home and b) have a nice home and a decent salary that’s not yet under threat*. I’m busily partaking in naice white lady activities (my home made bread is getting pretty good)and taking art classes online. My work is pretty stressful and difficult to conduct via videoconferencing but not having to commute is amazing; My lovely lodger went to stay with her partner, leaving me the flat to myself. Most importantly, the people I love are as safe as they can be and everyone healthy so far, although I reach under a chair to knock on wood and my heart twists in fear as I type that. In the name of sanity I stopped reading Twitter almost completely. I have been earnestly praising the NHS and stopping my ears to the sirens.

But

At the end of this, whatever point we call ‘the end’ because it will be bloody hard to tell; Dear god, let there be a fucking reckoning.
(Link from andrewducker) I am ambivalent about Alistair Campbell but at least he knows what’s not happening in terms of holding the government to account - link: https://www.thearticle.com/media-questions-at-no10-briefings-are-woeful-here-are-20-they-should-ask“
ESPECIALLY of note: why the fuck are people angry with footballers and not actual profiteers and the incomprehensibly wealthy?

(Link from mirabile) An unrolled Twitter thread from laineydoyle in case any of us in the UK are under the impression that this government really did any kind of a decent job of reacting to this threat. Link: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1249127908876128259.html
I think there are some off assumptions in there, but overall it makes sense and is blistering in the ways in which British response has failed us in comparison to Ireland’s.

Especially, ESPECIALLY, save us from grovelling ‘leadership’ worship when by far the most useful, if not the only useful, thing Boris Johnson has ever done for this country was to get dangerously sick in the public eye just before a beautiful Easter weekend.

I went to the gym to lift some weights for the first time in years on Friday and my legs and my arms hate me. Man, they hate me today.

Saturday I went on the women's march in London and that was a lot of fun. It started out very Islington, lots of Women's Equality Party signs and all pretty white and middle class and studenty; but after a while I did see a bit of anti-fascism representation and some solidarity Syria, anti-islamaphobia, anti-Brexit stuff. Which was heartening. For me, it was about protesting the global swing towards fascism and the continuing acceptance of racism and misogyny, but if that thing playing president in the US unites so many, then fine. And the pussy placards were pretty funny. Very striking how little police presence was there - essentially traffic control - and how controlled the whole thing was. we'll see how that looks in future demos.

Then a wee birthday party for bf's buddy where I held out for a few hours and then curled up and slept like the knackered anti-social bundle of joy I am.

Today is for laundry and the sofa.

So now the dismay and the regret and the useless responses have kicked in and the mostly White British people in England and Wales have looked around at the devastation with guilt rising like stomach acid and everyone else has taken the hit like the vicious blow it was I can honestly say that all the other times I said I was ashamed to be English were lies and I was pretty much saying it for validation or cookies or something and this time I really am except that shame would be cleaner.

trille is
1. Extremely talented
2. An enormously adorable dork
3. A fellow Sid/Geno shipper
4. MY FRIEND OK BE JEALOUS
5. All round A+ person

She made this fantastically charming hockey vid which may make you smile and sing all day and will make you laugh and be impressed at how bloody good she is at what she does (she took out the cartoon hearts I asked for in the final cut but it's still adorable).

LINKS GO SEE NOW TELL HER HOW GREAT THIS IS -
DW
LJ
AO3

Amazing things.

But until I do, here is Drunk Furniture, which nearly made me cry trying not to giggle at work today.