BronxWench

I’m back… again.  But it’ll take a bit of time to work out if everything truly is running normally again.

Upgrading the forum, will be doing this over the next half hour or so.

WARNING: Personal politics ahead...
So the petition against Trump making a state visit now has over 1.5m signatures. For context, the UK has a population of about 52m people who are over the age of fourteen.
This evening, I was off out protesting in Sheffield. For such short notice there were a lot of people, so many we closed the main road in front of the town all. At one point I was out on the edges, when a woman asked me what it was about, since she had just finished work. I told her; so she joined in.
Of all the slogans I heard chanted tonight, “Trump – better out than in!” is probably my favourite. Followed closely by the “Theresa the appeaser!” mentions from the speakers.
Also memorable is the moment when a girl stood up in front of the microphone and declared: “I am a muslim woman! And an activist!” to rapturous applause.
I’ve got to admit, I have (especially in my younger years) participated in many anti-racist and anti-fascist protests, marches and rallies, but this is the first where I felt protest and civic duty really merged together into one.
 

Is anyone else, like me, looking at the news in sheer unbelieving horror?
Or has everyone taken the route of sanity and turned it off?
Refugees denied, families seperated, US residents denied entry… suddenly that TV section from the newspaper about the inauguration doesn’t seem as funny.
And I swear everyone around him.. you can see in their eyes that they know he’s completely and utterly insane. They just haven’t got a clue what to do about it.
This is some really, really bad shit… and terrifying. 

Goodbye and RIP John Hurt
Who said of Downton Abbey: “I just think it is poxy! I mean, I'm sorry, but it is rotten writing and rotten acting.“
And also this: “I remember talking to Olivier when we were doing Lear. He said: 'When it comes to your obituary they will only mention two or three performances, and they will be the ones that defined you early on.' I said: 'What will they write about you?' Richard III and Wuthering Heights_', he replied. And he was right.”
So today you’ll hear a lot about his death scene in Alien, and his role as The Elephant Man, but let’s also remember we’ve lost a man who played The Doctor, who voiced the dragon in Merlin, Winston from the film 1984, Mr Olivander from the Harry Potter films, and the narrator of Dogville (which imho is one of most horrific studies into human nature ever conceived).
 

So. 
My almost 81 year old mother is wobbly and not feeling top form because she has a sinus infection, but doesn’t want to take the nice antibiotics which will clear up said infection.
My YoungerSpawn is acting out at school and being generally a difficult young male creature, complicated by autism. We may, for the first time, require behavioral therapy.
My corgi was back in hospital with cluster seizures, and now has a second medication which makes her sleepy. We’re hoping she’ll adjust to the new med and come back to her sunny self, but the current flattening of her lively nature is heartbreaking.
I need it to be April 15, so I can open the lake house and go hide there for a solid week. Alone. With wine and coffee.

So. 
My almost 81 year old mother is wobbly and not feeling top form because she has a sinus infection, but doesn’t want to take the nice antibiotics which will clear up said infection.
My YoungerSpawn is acting out at school and being generally a difficult young male creature, complicated by autism. We may, for the first time, require behavioral therapy.
My corgi was back in hospital with cluster seizures, and now has a second medication which makes her sleepy. We’re hoping she’ll adjust to the new med and come back to her sunny self, but the current flattening of her lively nature is heartbreaking.
I need it to be April 15, so I can open the lake house and go hide there for a solid week. Alone. With wine and coffee.

And I’m back in action again.

Well… it’s been a strange few days, that’s for sure!
Here are some examples of “alternative facts” for reference:
Despite photographic evidence, in terms of visible crowds, less is more.
A unicorn just flew past my window with a can of Red Bull in its mouth. It had a sign around its neck saying it was a Pegasus.
Being sent abusive comments means you are guilty of harassment.
The world is actually flat.
There is no such thing as marmite.
I do not have work in the morning.
I am not going to bed.
I am not saying goodnight.

All I know is that rain is the most appropriate thing to happen today...

I have put a ban on any channel that might show the orange menace’s face for the entire weekend. I’m going to pretend the world stopped on the 19th and live in my little bubble until it pops, until then I will be watching a marathon of cartoons with the kids. That is all.

Well…
This morning I turned on the TV and threw up in my mouth a bit.
I haven’t done that since the day Diana died. And for many of the same reasons.
 

My C drive is failing so I’m going to be offline for a bit until everything is sorted.  Computers, I have a great love/bitter hatred affair with them!

Nightmare for Snape (as headmaster), an entire year being sorted, each student having those bottle green eyes.

My apologies, but this was too good not to share. Found on one of my political sites who came on it via George Takei, here is the Sunday Herald’s (Scotland) TV section:

Awesome…

Oh it got up to 112F today, not 110F?  Thanks Mr Weather Man, that makes me feel so much better.

It is likely there will be a new chapter of The Teacher tomorrow.
 

So yesterday I knitted a bobble hat for the dog. You can’t tell, but she’s really impressed.

Quote from my mum: “Trump has a face like a disappointed fish.”

Over Christmas (as we do every year), we watched the entirety of ‘Pride and Prejudice’ while engaging in our own particular hobbies. Mostly, the quiet ones, like sewing, although every now and again it does precipitate one to cry out in a most alarmed fashion upon discovering an earlier miscount of stitches.
Be that as it may, I came upon a sudden startling conclusion whilst watching this year, which has to do with my dislike of our modern-day “celebrity culture”- and it is this:
Almost everyone on the entire planet has turned into Mr. Collins!
It’s true. Think about it for one moment. Remember the ugliness of his infatuation, and how well he considers himself for enjoying the “condescension” and “patronage” of Lady Catherine de Bourgh. You could easily replace that woman’s name with any featured in the celebrity section of our news outlets today and lose little meaning. And, just as in ‘Pride and Prejudice’ Lady Catherine has little claim to our (or Lizzie’s) adulation, our admiration or even our respect, except for that which society bestows upon her.
In light of the above, it is possible that we can draw a straight comparison here between Lady Catherine and any of the Kardashians, or Kanye West, or Donald Trump. As for Mr. Collins… I respectfully and humbly suggest that if you’re in the habit of grovelling to people with no claim to your consideration besides their excessive wealth and status – please stop. The rest of us are Lizzie. We are not Charlotte Lucas. It’s unseemly.
 
My apologies. I haven’t been writing anything. And now I have a piano lesson. And actually, I think I might be Lydia. Oh, well.

I am building a small solar-powered toy robot. 
At this point, I’m assuming the “educational” aspect of this toy for children is the eighty page assembly booklet, in Chinese.
 

“Comfort and Joy” is finally done! And only 8 days after Christmas.

Yay!  The first chapter to my holiday fic’s sequel is finished.  Probably be several weeks untilI post, but at least it’s finished.

One is supposed to stay up *until* midnight for New Years.  Instead, I wake up, my mind’s wired on my story, and I can’t get back to sleep.  Oh well, I don’t have to work tomorrow either, so may as well get some writing in.

Happy new year, guys