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Run Away With Me
May. 31st, 2020 10:09 pmWith the weather being so good, apparently the sunniest Spring on record, I've spent much of the last week outside reading books (two Mark Thomas polemics and now Dave Gorman's America Unchained). It has been great to have the opportunity to slow down and unwind, even though I am now two months into my furlough period and I am starting to feel the acute lack of purpose in my life. My work still haven't been in touch, which I find quite disappointing, particularly following the news that horse racing is coming back from tomorrow (which was announced last Tuesday) and Premier League football back on 17 June (revealed last Thursday), but equally I am in no huge rush to return. Furthermore, I had hoped that I would hear back from some of the jobs for which I have applied last week, but it has been all quiet in this regard too. I'm hoping to hear more details this week.
Aside from that, it's been a pretty standard seven days. We had pony chats on both Tuesday evening and today, shorter than usual as Zoom is now forcing us into the standard forty-minute affair rather than giving us unlimited minutes, while the final Clap for Carers went off with a bang on Thursday. I decided not to wear my suit on account of it being quite hot. We also had the usual Saturday morning cartoon gathering with Arakin and Saturday evening was spent with Stray and the gang playing Cards Against Humanity and Jackbox. I must admit I didn't enjoy the latter too much, partly because there were over eight people in the chat and it then becomes something of a shouting match, and partly because the topics of discussion were well outside my comfort zone (video games, Space-X and penis length mainly). Indeed, it has been a week of feeling somewhat isolated in the furry fandom, what with the nature of social media discussion in general, but I am hoping that now that lockdown is being eased, there'll be more chance for face-to-face social gatherings rather than online ones and I think this will help. The sheer dominance of video games in this Fandom has been highlighted quite starkly in the lockdown and my feelings of antipathy have risen with it.
We are trying to arrange a socially distanced walk in the woods for next week, along with having some friends around for a BBQ, but we'll see whether they transpire. I hope so, as I haven't seen any fur in real life since 17 March aside from Wolfie (and maybe Tonks once, as we were walking down the street). I am still nervous that the lockdown is being lifted too soon though, finding it odd that the easing of social restrictions for this coming Monday was announced the previous Thursday ahead of a sunny weekend. It's almost as if the Government wanted a story to deflect from their poor handling of the COVID-19 emergency, not to mention the sheer hypocrisy of their chief adviser. Of course, I wouldn't like to say, suffice to say that it has been odd hearing Barnard Castle in the news so much over the last week as this is where my mother and step-father live and where I visited regularly while growing up. I must also admit becoming increasing irked as the week has gone on about all of the bad pronounciations of the town's name - a long a in Castle is bad enough, but emphasis of the 'ard' in Barnard is taking the piss.
The only other thing that's happened this week is yesterday evening's ArFF livestream, replacing the con which has also been cancelled due to COVID-19. We had gone to Brewdog to collect some beers before heading back for this big event. It was all in Spanish and so was tricky to follow, but it was good to see everyone again and to get chatting with friends online. I didn't really understand the Guest of Honour bit (with the slightly unfortunately named Negger) but the introduction and the Bocalan charity parts of the stream were reasonably easy to follow, as was their own version of Cards Against Humanity (being able to read the cards made it a lot more easy to understand). It was also good to see some of the video footage from last June, including me being in the fursuit parade outside the Lima Subte stop, which evoked so many warm memories. While this was going on, I was in the Telegram chatting to furs in both English and Spanish, as well as sending fursuit photos of me watching the stream their way, which made me part of their community once again. It was a good feeling and a nice distraction from my UK-based worries, and also further cemented my desire to head back to South America sometime and explore with them again.
Aside from that, it's been a pretty standard seven days. We had pony chats on both Tuesday evening and today, shorter than usual as Zoom is now forcing us into the standard forty-minute affair rather than giving us unlimited minutes, while the final Clap for Carers went off with a bang on Thursday. I decided not to wear my suit on account of it being quite hot. We also had the usual Saturday morning cartoon gathering with Arakin and Saturday evening was spent with Stray and the gang playing Cards Against Humanity and Jackbox. I must admit I didn't enjoy the latter too much, partly because there were over eight people in the chat and it then becomes something of a shouting match, and partly because the topics of discussion were well outside my comfort zone (video games, Space-X and penis length mainly). Indeed, it has been a week of feeling somewhat isolated in the furry fandom, what with the nature of social media discussion in general, but I am hoping that now that lockdown is being eased, there'll be more chance for face-to-face social gatherings rather than online ones and I think this will help. The sheer dominance of video games in this Fandom has been highlighted quite starkly in the lockdown and my feelings of antipathy have risen with it.
We are trying to arrange a socially distanced walk in the woods for next week, along with having some friends around for a BBQ, but we'll see whether they transpire. I hope so, as I haven't seen any fur in real life since 17 March aside from Wolfie (and maybe Tonks once, as we were walking down the street). I am still nervous that the lockdown is being lifted too soon though, finding it odd that the easing of social restrictions for this coming Monday was announced the previous Thursday ahead of a sunny weekend. It's almost as if the Government wanted a story to deflect from their poor handling of the COVID-19 emergency, not to mention the sheer hypocrisy of their chief adviser. Of course, I wouldn't like to say, suffice to say that it has been odd hearing Barnard Castle in the news so much over the last week as this is where my mother and step-father live and where I visited regularly while growing up. I must also admit becoming increasing irked as the week has gone on about all of the bad pronounciations of the town's name - a long a in Castle is bad enough, but emphasis of the 'ard' in Barnard is taking the piss.
The only other thing that's happened this week is yesterday evening's ArFF livestream, replacing the con which has also been cancelled due to COVID-19. We had gone to Brewdog to collect some beers before heading back for this big event. It was all in Spanish and so was tricky to follow, but it was good to see everyone again and to get chatting with friends online. I didn't really understand the Guest of Honour bit (with the slightly unfortunately named Negger) but the introduction and the Bocalan charity parts of the stream were reasonably easy to follow, as was their own version of Cards Against Humanity (being able to read the cards made it a lot more easy to understand). It was also good to see some of the video footage from last June, including me being in the fursuit parade outside the Lima Subte stop, which evoked so many warm memories. While this was going on, I was in the Telegram chatting to furs in both English and Spanish, as well as sending fursuit photos of me watching the stream their way, which made me part of their community once again. It was a good feeling and a nice distraction from my UK-based worries, and also further cemented my desire to head back to South America sometime and explore with them again.
