Bitte Bleib Stehen

[lupestripe]

It’s been a largely quiet week back in the UK, keeping myself to myself at home. I have had increasing confidence about leaving the house unoccupied over the past few days following the break in, which is just as well as I am going to Scotiacon on Thursday. The bill for the emergency lock repair dropped through on Friday and it wasn’t as bad as I was expecting it to be while Taneli came around on Sunday to help me fit the door handle. He put the screws on the inside, which is the exactly the sort of thing that I would have missed, so his help was very much appreciated.

The plan on Sunday had been to go and visit Entei-rah but he is still in hospital so we had to cancel for the second week in a row. I am growing worried that I won’t be able to see him on this trip, but there is an opportunity in two weeks’ time before we had back to Germany. Instead, Taneli and I largely just chatted before heading out to Popeyes in Birstall. I had never tried this place before, not even when I was living in Louisiana, and I thought it was quite good. I decided to get one of their box meals so I could try a wider range of things, opting for the Ranch sauce as my dip. This was a blast from the past really, while the chicken itself was succulent and well-cooked. I went for the regular rather than the spicy version, with the burger a strong example, although the pickles were perhaps a bit shrivelled and weird. The Cajun fries were rather good too, if a little soggy, but for £13 I couldn’t really complain.

Afterwards, we called in at Starbucks where I grabbed a chai latte to go, and we headed back to my place to watch 100% Wolf. This Australian film is something that Taneli had wanted to show me for a while, and it is a cute story about a pink haired poodle who thought he was going to lead the werewolf pack. I quite enjoyed it, it was certainly a great Sunday evening film, and a fantastic way to round off an incredible day.

Shiro came around on Friday en route to do some videography and photo shooting for ConFuzzled in Birmingham. This saw me break away from work for a few hours and spend some time with him, which largely consisted of taking some fetish-themed polaroid images amongst other things. It was great seeing him again and I look forward to catching up with him at Scotiacon next week.

As I have been largely by myself, I have used the opportunity to catch up on some reading and watching BBC iPlayer. Utunu's 'Far Flung' was an excellent novel, albeit one with some flaws, while I caught up with the Christmas special of 'Gavin and Stacey', which was every bit as good as I was expecting. I even watched the making of documentary afterwards, such were the plot twists. I'm currently watching Series 3 of 'Race Across the World' which was set across Canada just after the pandemic. This has been gripping television and I have seen more places I want to travel to. I doubt I'll get to Series 4 before I go away to Scotland though. It's annoying that I can't get the BBC very easily in Germany, despite still paying the license fee, so I'm using these blank winter days to catch up on what I have missed. Speaking of winter days, I have really enjoyed the variation of weather. It has been cold, for sure, and I have still been reticient to go out, but at least it has not been slate gray skies all the time like in Berlin.

Aside from this, it’s been pretty steady. My three stories were all sadly rejected from the PAW 2 anthology although one of them was ‘RIGHT on the edge’ so I guess I have to take solace from that. I also managed to do over 2,000 words of writing on a new story this weekend, which has reassured me that I could write here should we return to the UK. Regarding that, I am still quite conflicted. We’ll have to see if there is any fallout from the conflicted cooperation of Friedrich Merz’s CDU with the AfD on an immigration bill last week, which has seen ‘Die Brandmauer’ fall. This is worrying as he has now given people a reason to vote for the far-right. Considering he was leading the polls significantly, it was a ridiculous move and there were huge protests in Berlin today with a quarter of a million people. It is three weeks to the election and I guess we’ll have to see how it plays out. The same is true regarding the Trump tariffs, with Canada, Mexico and China the first to be hit. No doubt the EU will be next, while it is unclear what the UK’s fate will be. This too will likely affect our decision, but with no need to make that decision until the end of the month, I guess we will ride it out.

It is difficult to find hope right now though. What’s happening in the US, particularly with the scrubbing of trans people from government databases, is tantamount to erasure and we haven’t even had two weeks of Trump’s presidency. The tariffs on Canada will see the price of lumber rise, which means the publishing industry will be adversely affected. This could mean fewer books and thus fewer places to get published. And this is not counting censorship on LGBTQ+ and adult-based literature, which no doubt will be coming down the line. The deluge is thick and it’s hard to stay afloat, but I guess stay afloat we must. I just don’t know for how long I can.