We Are The Puppy Metal Drinking Crew

The weather has broken, with thick leaden clouds across the sky. It's going to be this way for the next couple of weeks, making a mockery of the fact that it's summer. At least, the clouds did break slightly on Friday afternoon, which was fortuitous as my father came to viist, wanting to walk the old railway line that used to form the Pudsey Loop. This was the first time I had seen my father since 10 February, and the first time I had seen him under normal circumstances since Christmas, considering the February visit was for my grandfather's funeral. He came around at 4:30pm and spent about four hours here. We spent much of this time walking around Pudsey, where I got to show him Black Carr Wood, the Moravian Settlement and the old railway tracks, which he was particularly interested in. This also gave us the time to catch up, which was the usual affair, before we both headed home and sat outside in the garden with some fish and chips from the Wetherby Whaler. The sun had gone in by this point and it was a little nippy, but Wolfie joined us too and it was a nice way to round off his visit.

Earlier in the day, I had been in Leeds again, meeting someone who could really help our fledgling business. He was a contact from the old place, but who has also been let go by them, at least on a business setting. We feel we could do a lot of work together, and so it proved, with our contact admitting he is happy to back us regardless of whether we can help him (although I am sure we can), Wolfie drove me into Leeds and hung around while I had my meeting, but it was clear he was becoming increasingly exacerbated by people not socially distancing or 'being idiots' as he called it. Things started off badly when a couple entered the lift in which we were standing in Trinity Car Park, flagerantly ignoring the signs (which to be fair I don't think I saw), and things got worse. Wolfie did stick his snout into Brewdog which he said was fine, but after our meeting, I walked back with a fellow director and because I wasn't exactly where I said I was going to be at exactly the right time (despite Wolfie not texting me where he was or answering his phone), he became quite prissy. He clearly fears COVID much more than I, but at least it will keep expenditure down. The problem is, I am starting to go stir crazy being trapped here, and with new countries being added to the UK's quarantine list, I'm starting to feel claustrophobic. Still, for now I have a business to set up, and we are preparing for our official launch tomorrow, while I have to get up incredibly early as I am attending an online networking event and tomorrow's focus is on SE Asia so all of the timezones have been adjusted accordingly. Aside from this, it has been another positive week regarding setting up the company and I am feeling reasonably optimistic, but we still need that first magical deal to drop in.

Yesterday was Leeds Meet day, and I didn't mind spending it online such was the drabness of the weather. Wolfie started proceedings at 12 noon, with me showing my snoot shortly after 1pm. It was slow to start off with, but then grew quite considerably, although I was disappointed that none of our usual regulars within our own friendship circles were there. Still, I got to meet a new fur from the Salisbury area who is into craft beer (and now part of the Brew Crew), while Tonks's quiz went quite well, although I am not convinced the just type the answer into the chat way of answering is the best, favouring as it does fast typers. Still, this gave the quiz brevity, and created a positive jocular atmosphere so it was certainly thirty minutes well-spent. Aside from this, we just talked about a range of things, with me dipping in and out depending on the conversation and whether I could contribute to it. I am glad to see the Discord meets are still popular after six of them now, but with all the attention currently on VRChat, I do fear focus could be pulled over there. I have a basic avatar sorted for this, but without the actual equipment I am struggling to engage with it. However, with conventions like Eurofurence and Infurnity now embracing the technology, the resistance I had to Second Life back in the day is almost certainly going to be broken here.

Gothicat did a post-Leeds Furs DJ stream last night, which attracted a few people but not as many as I would have liked. Still, it was a good mix of 80s, 90s and cheese music, in contrast to the heavy metal set of the night before. Of course I prefer the Friday evening shows, and it was the same again this week, but the conversation on the chat is pretty electric now and the music last night was grand too, if not slightly weird. As with listening to albums with Wolfie on various evenings, it also enables us to be introduced to a range of new music, and with the titles of the tracks clearly stated, we are getting into some new tunes too. At the same time, it's enabling Wolfie and I to bond and I can watch front cab videos of the Chicago CTA rail network, which is of interest too.

The rest of the week was very work focused. Wolfie hasn't heard back from Berlin yet while I was so busy on Tuesday when he had his interview I completely forgot about that night's Pony Chat, which I should have been running as Blacksnip's away. I'm hoping to make up for that this afternoon. Aside from that, today will just be about my walk, our now traditional Sunday afternoon trip to Greggs followed this evening by some more live music streaming from Stray, I hope. We enjoyed last night's Jackbox Games, which I joined after midnight, immediately after Gothi's set, but I struggled to engage with the more drawing themed ones and wasn't really on top form. I know Stray is starting to tire of hosting these, and is worried about his alcohol consumption, so there is talk of dropping them down from one a week to one a fortnight. While this would be a shame, there are some weekends I can't do in the forthcoming weeks, so it may be a sensible option. Plus, now I am working again, I am not sure I can keep doing the 1pm wake-ups on a Sunday and the feeling of slight grogginess (but very rarely full hangover) that has started to define the second half of the weekend. Still, the Jackbox sessions are still fun, even if we are up past 4am most days. We even got to try dodgy local takeaway Howdy last night, with their burgers actually being quite nice. Like with most takeaways though, the food sweated in the box, reducing the quality significantly. The rodeo fries were soggy and as for the nachos...