Current Affairs

Coronavirus – Day #42

~ Cheryl

42 is the answer to the question, “how many days in 6 weeks?”. So that’s how long I have been in self-isolation. I did go out twice to get food, but other than that haven’t left home. I’m not missing the outside world much, though having a garden I could sit in would be nice.

Today was spent primarily at a conference for women Classicists (and allies). I gave a short talk which seemed to be well received. And I learned a lot, particularly about doing online teaching. I have felt for some time that you can’t simply replace a classroom lecture with an online one, and it was good to have that confirmed, and to get some tips for doing online teaching better.

It was an interesting experience spending the best part of 7 hours in an online conference. I thought it went very well, though getting people into breakout rooms in Zoom continues to be an unnecesarily complex process.

I also recorded another interview for the new Salon Futura, and I’ve put a loaf in the bread machine. I think that will do for the day. I’m pleased to see that I appear to have just enough flour for one more loaf. Hopefully it will be possible to buy it again next time I go to Tesco.

I don’t know much about what happened in the rest of the world today, though I gather that the government opened a website for testing essential workers for the virus, and it collapsed after a few hours. That is entirley typical.

Coronavirus – Day #41

~ Cheryl

Much of today has been spent on the edge of falling asleep. That might be at least in part due to the large quantities of spring sunshine streaming through my windows, but I still feel sleepy now. As you’ll see from today’s other entries, I have managed to get some things done. Not a lot though. And I’m OK with that.

Besides, tomorrow I have to be up, awake and presentable by 10:00am, which is about an hour earlier than I have managed all this week. I blame these lovely people.

zzzzzzzzzzzz…

Today on Ujima – Dealing with the Virus

~ Cheryl

A day late, but this week’s show finally got on the air. This is one of the problems with not being able to go into the studios: tech-fail happens. Huge thanks to Miranda, our station manager, for sorting it all out.

I spent the first hour of today’s show talking to my good friend Paulette North. Paulette was the person who recuited me to Ujima, and Women’s Outlook was her show before it was mine. We talked about a whole range of subjects, including how she is coping with Lockdown, how Gloucester Road in Bristol is a great little community, and how the government is coping with the crisis. Paulette has never been one to hide her political opinions, so this one is well worth a listen.

Next up I spoke to Daryn Carter of Bristol Pride. He’s had a fairly nasty case of C-19 and is now in recovery. He talked to me about what it was like to go through the illness, and how recovery is a very lengthy process.

Finally I spoke to Aled Osborne from Brigstowe about how people who are living with HIV face additional problems in these unprecedented times, and how you can help Bristowe to help them. As I’ve said before, I think that the lessons learned by the queer community in surviving the AIDS epidemic will be of great value to the world as we begin to recover from C-19.

Because the show was broadcast on the wrong day, it won’t appear in the usual category on the Listen Again service, but you can find it under today’s 12:00-14:00 slot, which is here.

The playlist for today’s show was as follows:

  • Eddy Grant – Baby Come Back
  • Dina Carroll – Don’t be a stranger
  • Gladys Knight & the Pips – Help Me Make it Through the Night
  • Aretha Franklin – Chain of Fools
  • Sade – Hang on to your love
  • Gloria Gaynor – I will survive
  • Whitney Houston – My Love is Your Love
  • Dreadzone – Life, Love & Unity

Coronavirus – Day #40

~ Cheryl

Today was a cooking day. It was a cheap one too. I had some fresh veg that needed eating, so I went for a classic Southern dish that Kevin taught me: red beans and rice. It is also vegetarian and nicely spicy. That will do me for a few more days as well.

Out in the so-called “real” world, journalists at the Financial Times are claiming that the true death toll in the UK from the virus is over 41,000, rather than the 17,000 that the government is reporting. It is quite bizarre to live in a world in which the FT is the main opposition paper to a Conservative government, but here we are.

And talking of the government, Parliament was back in action again today, albeit with minimal physical attendance in Westminister. The government took the opportunity to set out some of its priorities for the coming months, which it turns out will include starting on the roll-back of trans rights in the UK. It looks like trans kids will bear the initial brunt of their planned cruelty, but it won’t stop there.

Coronavirus – Day #39

~ Cheryl

Probably the most annoying thing about Lockdown is that, while I am coping well with the psychological side of things, every so often I have a day when my body says “enough”. Today was another one of those days. I woke up with a low-grade headache that has never quite gone away. So although I did get some work done, I didn’t do nearly as much as I’d hoped.

Oh well, thankfully there’s little screamingly urgent left needing doing.

I have a radio show tomorrow. One of the interviews is with my friend Daryn Carter who has had a pretty nasty case of C-19. It it he talks a bit about the rollercoaster recovery process. Relapses are common. I certainly feel a bit like that today.

But relapses affect countries too. The news media were apparently crowing this morning that the UK had turned a corner and beaten the virus, because we’d had two consecutive days when the death toll fell. It doesn’t work like that. Today we are back over 800 again. I was speaking yesterday with a friend who works at a hospital, and they were looking at May for peak load.

Meanwhile people are getting exciting over the Office of National Statistics data on deaths. The ONS has information on the total number of people who die each day, which they can compare with averages going back many years. We are significantly above average. The actual numbers of people dying are much higher than annual average plus offical government virus death toll. This has led to people claiming that the C-19 death toll is 41% higher than the government says, and to government supporters yelling “fake news”.

The first thing to note is that the numbers are not fake. All of those people have died. The official government death toll, currently at 17,337, refers only to people who died in hospital and who tested positive for C-19. That means that thousands more unexpected deaths have occured that cannot be directly linked to the virus.

Those people will have died for a variety of reasons. They may have had C-19 but were not tested. They may have died of other things because they had been weakened by a case of C-19. They may have died from something entirely different that might not have been fatal if the heath service hadn’t been massively overloaded at the time. 16 women apparently died in domestic violence incidents, which is more than twice as many as would be expected in that time period.

So you don’t have to have had a case of C-19 for your death to be linked to it in some way.

Coronavirus – Day #38

~ Cheryl

Today I have: finished editing this week’s radio show; attended an online meeting (Diversity Trust work); finished writing an essay about a book on trans people in the Classical world; and done a batch of laundry. Pretty much a normal day of working from home.

Out in the supposed “real” world I have seen stuff on social media suggesting that government propagandists, or a marketing company employed by them, set up 128 fake Twitter accounts, purporting to be NHS staff for the purpose of trying to show that doctors and nurses support the “herd immunity” policy favoured by Cabinet hawks. Sadly I am unsurprised, neither by the dishonesty of it, nor by the incompetence with which the subtefuge was implemented.

Elsewhere the price of oil on US markets has gone negative.

Coronavirus – Day #37

~ Cheryl

Much excitement in the UK media today. With the Labour Party pretty much dead in the water thanks to its own internal squabbles, the Tories feel safe to fight amongst themselves. Thus we had the remarkable sight of The Times launching a full-scale attack on Boris Johnson.

For the benefit of foreign readers, a little explanation is in order. The Times, owned by Rupert Murdoch, has always backed Michael Gove for Prime Minister. However, the Tory right, which is very traditionalist, prefers the Telegraph, for whom Bozo is a columnist. Having The Times attack Bozo is therefore possibly a signal that Gove thinks he can make a bid for power while the PM is still indisposed from his bout of virus.

There are other things to bear in mind, though. Gove probably doesn’t have the support of either the party or the country for a coup. What he can do is fire a warning shot across the bows of Acting Prime Minister, Dominic Raab, to let him know that he has to do what Murdoch wants while Bozo is not around. What Murdoch wants, of course, is the end of Lockdown, and a return to the “herd immunity” strategy, because that is seen as being good for the economy (well, good for billionaires).

The coming week will be an interesting time in Westminister.

Not that us ordinary citizens can do much to influence things. We’ll just have to sit tight and hope that a modicum of common sense prevails.

In the meantime I have been working on next week’s radio show, and I have started on a project I promised myself when this all started. I am planning to watch all of the Studio Ghibli movies on Netflix. Today I watched Howl’s Moving Castle. I am now very much hoping that Lockdown lasts long enough for me to watch all of the others.

Coronavirus – Day #36

~ Cheryl ~ 2 Comments

So, birthday under Lockdown turns out to be much the same as any other birthday, but with a lot more (virtual) company.

I began the day by doing a trans history talk for a local LGBT+ group (adults this time), which was fun.

I have a fair amount of work of various sorts to do, but I decided to goof off for the day and do some baking. I don’t have a usable oven, so for Christmas I bought myself one of these (cheap in a Clark’s Village outlet store). I’ve been so busy that I haven’t had a chance to use it before today.

I decided to make scones (for cream tea) as they are fairly easy. They turned out suprisingly well for a first attempt. They were a little over-done, but machines like this are very precise and now I know to reduce the heat setting next time.

I had sport! Formula E has launched a sim series with most of the actual drivers taking part, plus a side race for other folks. It was actually the side race that interested me most as it had a combination of amateurs, profesional esports players, and young drivers hoping to break in to the big time. Charlie Martin has a seat in the Techeetah team. Sadly she didn’t do very well, but everyone is learning right now so I hope she’ll perform better in later races.

And of course there was WiFi SciFi 2. Only one panel this time, and it devolved into discussion of the writing business which is less of interest to me, but probably more what the punters want.

Next up: dinner, wine, cheese, TV or movie.

World, what world?

Coronavirus – Day #35

~ Cheryl

I might have overdone things a bit yesterday as I woke up feeling sore and stiff, as if I’d spent yesterday in the gym. My philisophy these days is that if my body says “no” then I listen to it, so today has been fairly lightweight.

I did record a couple of great interviews for next week’s radio show. One is with my friend Daryn Carter from Bristol Pride who has had a pretty nasty case of C-19 and is now starting on the long road to recovery.

The other is with Aled from Brigstowe, a charity that provides support for people who are living with HIV. While we were talking it occured to me that there are a lot of similarities between these two virus-borne illnesses. They are not identical, obviously. They attack different parts of the body, and HIV needs to be communicated through bodily fluids while C-19 is ferociously infectious. But with both there will be questions as to when people are phsyically and medically safe to return to work. Post-viral fatigue is likely to be an issue in recovery in both cases. People are already starting to talk about possible new laws that would require us to be able to prove that we were C-19 free before being let back into ordinary society. And inevitably there will be a social stigma against those who have had the disease, because those who haven’t will be afraid (however irrationally) of getting infected.

The upshot of this is that the lessons that the Queer community has learned over the years in supporting people who are living with HIV to integrate back into society may prove to be invaluable in helping rebuild after the pandemic has been contained.

I’m not the first person to think of his. I understand (thanks Roz) that Dr. Fauci, the US virologist, gained his reputation through working on the HIV epidemic. Also my friend Jonathan Cooper has written this article talking about how the victims of the C-19 pandemic will need to band together and speak out against a government that appears to assume that only people who deserved to die will have suffered.

Quite how one holds a government to account when it has an 80 seat majority and has most of the national news media in its pocket is another matter. But hold it to account we must, because if we don’t they will continue their project of selling off the NHS and dismantling all of our social safety nets.

Coronavirus – Day #34

~ Cheryl

I needed to cook again today. I made a batch of curry that will do me for a few days, though some of it will go on hold over the weekend due to there being venison steaks in the fridge.

I’ve also put out a new free short story (see below), started on the next radio show, and done some Women’s Equality Party work. I’m mostly keeping up with the email, but I’m sure there’s stuff I need to answer.

This evening I attended Mike Carey’s virtual book launch for The Book of Koli, which is an absolutely wonderful read. I’m afraid I can’t review it, for reasons that Mike explained in the interview, but all of the reviews I have seen thus far have been very positive.

If there is an outside world, I’ve been too busy to notice.

Coronavirus – Day #33

~ Cheryl

That’s another week’s radio show broadcast. I have also finished a presentation for an online academic conference next week. There’s no let-up in the work that needs doing.

Both main political parties in England are now talking about an “exit strategy”. As far as Labour is concerned, this may simply be a means of embarrassing the government. As far as the government is concerned, it is crazy talk because they have no intention of putting a testing regime in place, and without testing and a track-and-trace policy there’s no way that a loosening of restraints will result in anything other than a fresh surge of infections. Clearly they don’t think that enough of us have died yet.

Of course track-and-trace brings with it a whole set of new problems. Fortunately there are internet law experts thinking about these things, in addition to the tech guys who will be only too keen to be asked to build shiny new mass surveillance tools.

Still, no point in worrying about things that you can’t fix. I think I will go and read some books. I do have plenty of them.

Today on Ujima – Small Businesses in Lockdown, the Hugos

~ Cheryl

Today’s show mainly features small businesses talking about how they are coping with Lockdown.

I started with Tara from Talk to the Rainbow, a new psychotherapy service catering to members of marginalised communities. Understandably, they are in a lot of demand right now, but are having to learn to do therapy remotely.

Next up were Graham and Esmerelda from My Burrito, who seem to be doing OK on remote ordering, but are having a lot of trouble with Deliveroo. If you can order your food via a different delivery service then they, and many other restaurants, will be very grateful.

Finally I talked to Dan from Storysmith Books, who are finding that people’s interest in reading has not waned, and may even be increasing.

For the final segment of the show I had a chat with Kevin about this year’s Hugo finalists. We didn’t manage to cover all of the categories, but hopefully we will have generated some interest in the Awards. Plus it was a chance for me to point out how female-dominated they Hugos are these days.

You can find the show on the Ujima Listen Again service.

The playlist for today’s show was:

  • Andy Allo – Superconductor
  • Chaka Khan – Ain’t Nobody
  • Liane La Havas – Unstoppable
  • Janelle Monáe – Tightrope (Mouche & Big Remix)
  • Chic – Good Times
  • Prince – Alphabet Street
  • Jackie Shane – Money
  • Parliament – Mothership Connection

Coronavirus – Day #32

~ Cheryl

It being two weeks since I last shopped, and with a birthday coming up, I knew I needed to brave Tesco again this week. I had originally planned to go tomorrow because I figured that the first day back after a long weekend might be a bit mad. However, I have two deliveries scheduled to arrive tomorrow, and two phone calls booked on Thursday, so today it had to be.

The car started, which was a relief. She likes the sunshine. It is only in winter that I have to run her every week or the battery goes flat.

As I expected, the store was quite a bit busier than last time I went, but the line moved very quickly. I think I was only queuing for around 15 minutes.

Most food is back in stock. There was pasta and rice. I even found a packet of disposable gloves. But there’s still no flour. Home baking FTW, I guess.

Most people were not wearing masks. I think I only saw 4 all the time I was there. Of course they are difficult to buy here, but it is in stark contrast to what I’m hearing from other countries. However, everyone was very well behaved.

There was a mountain of chocolate. Top end Easter eggs that were selling for £10 or more were on fire sale for £1 or £2 each. I may have bought several. I also have venison steak. Tomorrow I shall order more cheese from Fine Cheese Company.

The big news story here is that the government’s figures for virus deaths may be massively understated. It turns out that other European countries are including deaths in care homes in their fatality figures. The UK figures are for hospital deaths only. In France deaths in care homes make up around a third of the total deaths. So while the official government figures say that we have had around 12,000 deaths, the actual figure may be around 18,000.

Of course this is all speculation, and while the government refuses to embrace testing it is impossible to prove, but deaths in care homes are certainly happening. Also data from the Office of National Statistics is starting to become available, and we are seeing a sharp rise in deaths not attributed to the virus.

The other big story to break today is that Westminister is ordering suppliers of much needed personal protection equipment (PPE) to supply it to customers in England only, and not to accept orders from Scotland or Wales.

So much for the “United Kingdom”, eh?

We won’t forget.

Coronavirus – Day #31

~ Cheryl

What day is it today again? Oh yes, it is a Monday, but it is still Easter so most people here are not at work. I am, of course. Still plenty to do.

Not much to add to that really. There isn’t even any interesting virus-related news on social media because everyone is too busy talking about the disaster that is the Labour Party. It’s no wonder that a recent poll showed 46% of Brits willing to vote Tory again even though the government is deliberately letting thousands of people die. Is it too much to ask to have an opposition party that doesn’t devote most of its energy to in-fighting?

Coronavirus – Day #30

~ Cheryl

Today being supposedly a major national holiday, I have tried to take things easy. I have finished editing next week’s radio show, and done some housework. Other than that, mainly reading and TV.

My Twitter feed is full of speculation that Bozo’s stint in hospital was a publicity stunt. Just how ill he actually was will probably never be known, but it is pretty obvious that the state propaganda people have over-played their hand. Portraying him as a Conan-esque hero who has taken on the virus, mano-a-mano, and triumphed was laughable enough, but to have him released from hospital on Easter Sunday and go into the whole “he is risen” shtick was clearly ridiculous.

Ah well, I guess we can look forward to the Victory Parade in which Bozo takes the salute of the Armed Forces and is presented with a Victoria Cross by the Queen for his heroism. It might be worth all of the nonsense if only because it will wind up Donny Little Hands something rotten.

Coronavirus – Day #29

~ Cheryl

Today has been a long day of recording and editing interviews. I am now mostly done with next week’s radio show. I just have to choose the music and link everything together.

Out in the wider world I understand that Krakatoa has erupted. However, I gather that it does this quite often. That’s a good thing for volcanoes. It stops them building up a head of pressure that will lead to a Very Big Bang. So Krakatoa having a bit of a moment does not mean another worldwide dust cloud. It means that having one in the near future, at least from that volcano, is now less likely.

Besides, if Gaia was really out to get us, She would have let lose with the Yellowstone supervolcano.

Here in the UK people have been wondering why the Home Secretary has been conspicuously absent from press briefings over the past few weeks. Today she was allowed to do the daily virus briefing. Now everone knows why she had been kept away from the public before. Bozo’s problem is that he knows he’s not actually very competent, so he surrounded himself with Cabinet ministers who are even less competent than his is. Now he’s in hospital and we are seeing just how bad his team is.

Coronavirus – Day #28

~ Cheryl ~ 1 Comment

The one thing that you should never do with this virus is tell people that you are feeling better. It knows. This morning I woke up around 7:00am, listened to podcasts for a while until the loaf of bread I had in the bread machine was ready, and ate breakfast. By the end of that I was really tired and went back to bed. I woke up three hours later.

The rest of the day has been pretty much of a write-off. I did manage to record one interview for next week’s radio show, and cook some haggis & tatties. Other than that I have read, and attended an online party in Finland. I haven’t had the energy for anything much else.

And still I am doing much better than many people I know.

Here’s hoping that tomorrow is better.

Coronavirus – Day #27

~ Cheryl

Today marked a major health milestone in that it was the first morning in 27 days that I have woken up normally without having been woken in the middle of the night with a coughing fit. Slowly but surely my respiratory system is getting back to normal. I don’t feel 100% yet, but I’m getting there.

Of course I also feel quite guilty about having such mild symptoms. I have friends online who are having things much worse. This really is a nasty bug, folks. Try to avoid getting it if you can.

As you’ll see from other posts, I have had another busy day. With any luck things will calm down a bit over the long weekend.

Talking of which, Easter normally has awful weather in the UK. This year it is beautiful. I have been able to switch the central heating off. I suspect that this isn’t doing the country’s self-isolation policy any good. I’m happily staying inside, because the pollen count will be through the roof out there and that’s the last thing my sinuses need.

Coronavirus – Day #26

~ Cheryl

Today has been Publication Day for Unjust Cause, which means that you can now buy the ebook from our store. Our authors make more money if you buy direct. Also we give you both the ePub and Mobi, DRM free. Please buy from us rather than that big river place if you can.

There is going to be a new free short story going up tomorrow. This one is by me. I don’t normally push my own fiction, but I have good reason this time. All will be explained tomorrow.

Because I was busy I missed the Hugo Finalists announcement last night. I gather from Twitter that most people are very pleased, which is a relief. Personally I’m pleased to note that there are at least 6 trans people on the ballot. I’m also really pleased to see that all of the nominees for Fan Writer are first-timers. That shows that the field is really healthy.

Of course the big question will be whether a man manages to win a fiction award this year. It won’t happen in Novel because all six finalists are women. Ted Chiang, of course, has an excellent chance of winning. I will laugh myself silly if the only man who wins is Yoon Ha Lee.

Aside from pushing the new book, and the radio show, today has been more day job. I have no idea what is happening in the outside world, but I’m assuming that if the PM had died I would have heard about it.

Coronavirus – Day #24

~ Cheryl

Slowly but surely I am running out of urgent things to do. I might actually be able to enjoy some of that free time at home that everyone else is talking about soon. Of course there are plenty of non-urgent things, or at least slightly less-urgent things, to be doing. I’m not expecting to be bored any time soon.

Today marked the last of my near-future convention cancellations. Finncon 2020 is no more. However, the Finns have taken the decision to roll everything forward to next year. The 2020 convention has become the 2021 convention with the same location, guests and so on. There’s talk of some virtual events this summer, but I don’t suppose it would be very easy to have a virtual sauna.

This does mean that I won’t be visiting Finland at all this year, unless I make a special trip once the panic is all over. Maybe I should go in the winter. There are, after all, things to do.

The next physical trip that I have planned is to an academic convention in Germany in September. I’m keeping my paws crossed for that one.

I made a pot of chili in the slow cooker today. That will keep me fed for several days.