Hung Like A Puppy
May. 10th, 2020 02:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lupestripeMy hangover may have been something else as the headaches stretched well into Tuesday, making Monday something of a busted flush. Wolfie was off too so we just hung out together, ploughing through Race Around The World and the Hairy Bikers' Route 66 series, both of which are very entertaining. However, with headaches being more common and a slight bunged nose, I am unsure whether the problem is alcohol consumption, stress due to the current circumstances or hayfever, from which I suffer occasionally. The other possibility is the amount of dust in the house - we do clean pretty regularly but always being here does have a confining effect and it may be taking its toll.
The rest of the week followed a familiar pattern, at least the middle weekdays when I did my usual array of job applications followed by Boris walk, German learning (in the garden if the weather was clement enough), guitar and Animal Crossing. I am happy to say that my guitar playing has seen a significant leap in improvement over the course of the last week and I do feel I am finally starting to get there, after three years and 210 actual hours of admittedly intermittent practice. I also enjoyed my third interview for the job in Copenhagen, which meant well enough, with the fourth and final one due sometime next week. With my current job situation looking increasingly precarious - my manager again failed to phone me last week despite promising to do so - along with my concerns about their lack of innovation which I have outlined before, I do hope that I get offered the position in Denmark. I am down to the final three candidates so I am in with a chance, while even if I don't get the role, at least I am doing the right things to get one in the future.
Friday was VE Day, fortunately curtailed due to coronavirus, but this didn't prevent people from cracking out the bunting. I hate bunting, it always looks so incredibly tacky, but our street did it tastefully enough. On my daily Boris Walk, I noticed that about one in eight houses had some form of decoration up, which made me wonder where they all get it from, and while I am reticient to get into the patriotic flag waving stuff, Friday afternoon at least afforded the opportunity to get to know the neighbours more as they had laid on a street party. It was all socially distanced, with us sitting on our driveways talking to each other down the street or over the road, but Number 6 had ordered fish and chips for everyone and tasting this for the first time in about three months was a truly divine experience. Indeed, it was one of the things that I had been looking forward to for the whole week. We sat on our bit of pavement, having brought the small table and chairs from the front garden around, grabbing our fish and chips from the wall of Number 6 once it had arrived from The Bearded Sailor, where we usually go. We got to meet a number of our neighbours over the course of three hours, particularly the Left-leaning chappie at Number 3 and his neighbour of a similar view at Number 2. We hadn't spoken to her much before, so it was great to chat more in-depth, although we largely left politics out of things. The elderly couple who enjoyed my fursuiting were also around, but I suspect they were put off by (probably) being more right-leaning than us, but all-in-all conversations were largely about lockdown and only strayed into politics due to the current situation. Towards the end of the day, there were a few rather naive catch-all opinions being bounded (including the paying of BBC stars and why everyone who is fit should work) which failed to account for the complexity and nuance in all circumstances, but I couldn't be bothered to get into the debate as I had had such a nice day.
Thursday we also did the usual Clap for Carers thing, a good opportunity to check that all the neighbours are okay, not to mention have another quick chat. Alas, I couldn't do it in the dog suit again because I had the Remainiacs versus The Bunker Live Stream immediately afterwards, which was done as forty-five minutes of the former and forty-five minutes of the latter. It was largely going over old ground from the podcasts but it was good to see everyone live and feel part of a community, with the chat function also working this time due to the whole event being invite only.
Saturday was Europe Day, but as the weather was so fine, I ended up avoiding the EU Parliament events and sitting outside reading my book. I was going to hang our EU flag out of the window but I didn't want to be provocative, even though I believe Remainers outnumber Leavers on our street. It's sad that I feel this way really, particularly as the EU was set up in direct response to VE Day and the overcoming of fascism, but the UK is quite weird right now and I didn't want to revisit old painful arguments. In the end, I just went for a walk in the woods, bumping into one of the gym regulars to whom I spoke a while. He too was getting his exercise in despite coronavirus forcing the gyms to close, but of course he has to do it differently. Like with our regular beer delivery on Friday (plus a second beer delivery from Armley's Anthology Brewing Company), it has been good speaking with people face-to-face again, even if everything is constrained.
The other thing I did on Saturday was resume the weekly morning livesteam with Arakin. This week we watched Animalympics, an animation featuring animals created for the 1980 Olympics. It was very much of its time, with a few sexist barbs and a lot of fat jokes, but it was an enjoyable piece of animation, with no real connecting narrative aside from the marathon love story, which was interspersed throughout the film. The rest of it saw each Olympic event being taken in turn, with a few minutes focused on the main animal competitors of each. It was very nicely done and hearing the creator's director's commentary afterwards added more depth to the piece. Next week it's Flight of the Dragons, which I am looking forward to. It's a good thing we do as it gets us in touch with each other once a week, enables me to see movies I have not yet seen as well as preventing me from having an excessive lie-in as streaming starts at 10:30am.
Still, it has been a much better week than last because of it and while lockdown is inevitably going to be extended until the end of May at least, I feel comfortable enough about it. The only concern relates around money, with Tuesday's Times quoting a senior Tory MP saying he doesn't want people to become 'addicted' to the furlough scheme. The fact is that I have no choice but to be on it and I would very much rather be at work. Furthermore, this language merely contributes to the feeling of uncertainty, not aided by talk of the payments being cut again once July hits (if we are still in the current situation). Considering times are frightening enough, a further cut in the payment would start to force real financial pressures upon us so I have had a dark cloud of forboading increasingly gather in my mind. Of course, with the job application process, everything is still in my hands and none of this will hit for another seven weeks (and who knows where we will be by then), but this government is hardly helping the mental health of the nation. But then, I suppose, when have they ever cared anyway?
The rest of the week followed a familiar pattern, at least the middle weekdays when I did my usual array of job applications followed by Boris walk, German learning (in the garden if the weather was clement enough), guitar and Animal Crossing. I am happy to say that my guitar playing has seen a significant leap in improvement over the course of the last week and I do feel I am finally starting to get there, after three years and 210 actual hours of admittedly intermittent practice. I also enjoyed my third interview for the job in Copenhagen, which meant well enough, with the fourth and final one due sometime next week. With my current job situation looking increasingly precarious - my manager again failed to phone me last week despite promising to do so - along with my concerns about their lack of innovation which I have outlined before, I do hope that I get offered the position in Denmark. I am down to the final three candidates so I am in with a chance, while even if I don't get the role, at least I am doing the right things to get one in the future.
Friday was VE Day, fortunately curtailed due to coronavirus, but this didn't prevent people from cracking out the bunting. I hate bunting, it always looks so incredibly tacky, but our street did it tastefully enough. On my daily Boris Walk, I noticed that about one in eight houses had some form of decoration up, which made me wonder where they all get it from, and while I am reticient to get into the patriotic flag waving stuff, Friday afternoon at least afforded the opportunity to get to know the neighbours more as they had laid on a street party. It was all socially distanced, with us sitting on our driveways talking to each other down the street or over the road, but Number 6 had ordered fish and chips for everyone and tasting this for the first time in about three months was a truly divine experience. Indeed, it was one of the things that I had been looking forward to for the whole week. We sat on our bit of pavement, having brought the small table and chairs from the front garden around, grabbing our fish and chips from the wall of Number 6 once it had arrived from The Bearded Sailor, where we usually go. We got to meet a number of our neighbours over the course of three hours, particularly the Left-leaning chappie at Number 3 and his neighbour of a similar view at Number 2. We hadn't spoken to her much before, so it was great to chat more in-depth, although we largely left politics out of things. The elderly couple who enjoyed my fursuiting were also around, but I suspect they were put off by (probably) being more right-leaning than us, but all-in-all conversations were largely about lockdown and only strayed into politics due to the current situation. Towards the end of the day, there were a few rather naive catch-all opinions being bounded (including the paying of BBC stars and why everyone who is fit should work) which failed to account for the complexity and nuance in all circumstances, but I couldn't be bothered to get into the debate as I had had such a nice day.
Thursday we also did the usual Clap for Carers thing, a good opportunity to check that all the neighbours are okay, not to mention have another quick chat. Alas, I couldn't do it in the dog suit again because I had the Remainiacs versus The Bunker Live Stream immediately afterwards, which was done as forty-five minutes of the former and forty-five minutes of the latter. It was largely going over old ground from the podcasts but it was good to see everyone live and feel part of a community, with the chat function also working this time due to the whole event being invite only.
Saturday was Europe Day, but as the weather was so fine, I ended up avoiding the EU Parliament events and sitting outside reading my book. I was going to hang our EU flag out of the window but I didn't want to be provocative, even though I believe Remainers outnumber Leavers on our street. It's sad that I feel this way really, particularly as the EU was set up in direct response to VE Day and the overcoming of fascism, but the UK is quite weird right now and I didn't want to revisit old painful arguments. In the end, I just went for a walk in the woods, bumping into one of the gym regulars to whom I spoke a while. He too was getting his exercise in despite coronavirus forcing the gyms to close, but of course he has to do it differently. Like with our regular beer delivery on Friday (plus a second beer delivery from Armley's Anthology Brewing Company), it has been good speaking with people face-to-face again, even if everything is constrained.
The other thing I did on Saturday was resume the weekly morning livesteam with Arakin. This week we watched Animalympics, an animation featuring animals created for the 1980 Olympics. It was very much of its time, with a few sexist barbs and a lot of fat jokes, but it was an enjoyable piece of animation, with no real connecting narrative aside from the marathon love story, which was interspersed throughout the film. The rest of it saw each Olympic event being taken in turn, with a few minutes focused on the main animal competitors of each. It was very nicely done and hearing the creator's director's commentary afterwards added more depth to the piece. Next week it's Flight of the Dragons, which I am looking forward to. It's a good thing we do as it gets us in touch with each other once a week, enables me to see movies I have not yet seen as well as preventing me from having an excessive lie-in as streaming starts at 10:30am.
Still, it has been a much better week than last because of it and while lockdown is inevitably going to be extended until the end of May at least, I feel comfortable enough about it. The only concern relates around money, with Tuesday's Times quoting a senior Tory MP saying he doesn't want people to become 'addicted' to the furlough scheme. The fact is that I have no choice but to be on it and I would very much rather be at work. Furthermore, this language merely contributes to the feeling of uncertainty, not aided by talk of the payments being cut again once July hits (if we are still in the current situation). Considering times are frightening enough, a further cut in the payment would start to force real financial pressures upon us so I have had a dark cloud of forboading increasingly gather in my mind. Of course, with the job application process, everything is still in my hands and none of this will hit for another seven weeks (and who knows where we will be by then), but this government is hardly helping the mental health of the nation. But then, I suppose, when have they ever cared anyway?
