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Coronavirus – Day #73

~ Cheryl

I totally forgot to do a post yesterday, didn’t I? I’m sorry, I was having fun at Wiscon.

Today has been back to work for me, so there’s nothing much interesting to report here.

As to the wider world, the people of Britain are continuing to find out that their government simply does not care what they think of it, and there’s nothing that they can do about it. I suspect that the total refusal to admit any wrong-doing is the point. They want to rub people’s noses in the fact that they can do whatever they want. Once people realise that their anger is futile, it will morph into despair, and then resignation. And then further outrages become possible.

Coronavirus – Day #71

~ Cheryl

Today has been very busy.

I’ve made a start on an academic paper for an online conference that’s happening in 3 weeks time.

I’ve participated on what WE believe is the UK’s first — possibly the world’s first — socially distanced protest march. Thanks to everyone who shared the #PayProtectProtest hashtag on social media.

I watched the Formula E from Virtual Berlin (while doing the ironing).

And I have spent much of the day at Wiscon, which continues to be interesting. Today we saw some of the ways in which online conventions don’t work quite as well as face-to-face ones; or at least we haven’t developed the right techniques yet. Overall, however, I’m still very happy. You can expect a more detailed report in the new Salon Futura (which will be out next week).

On social media the Great British Public has morphed into the Very Angry British Public. Not that it is likley to come to anything, because the government has a majority of 80 and utter contempt for the electorate, but it is good to see that there is something that will get people riled up, and that it is not owning a donkey farm.

Coronavirus – Day #70

~ Cheryl

Hmm, yes, I was going to write about stuff. But I got distracted by an online convention. Which I think is a good thing. I love how people are suddenly willing to try all sorts of solutions to not being able to meet in person.

My main news from today is that I have noticed that after 10 weeks in Lockdown I am starting to get distinctly larger. As I don’t want to have to buy a new wardrobe, I have decided that I ought to start taking my government-mandated daily exercise. Besides, tomorrow the Women’s Equality Party is staging a socially-distanced protest march in support of carers and care workers. I need to go out and walk for that, so I got some practice in today. Somewhat to my suprise, my legs remembered how to walk.

I think that’s enough excitement for one day without looking at the news.

Coronavirus – Day #69

~ Cheryl

Life is slowly returning to normal here. I did some day job work today. But a lot has fallen by the wayside this week. There was no radio show as I was busy all weekend. And I totally forgot to do a new Lockdown Reading book today. Next week.

The main order of business today was food shopping. While I was out I also picked up my prescription, so I am OK for hormones for another 3 months. This is a huge relief.

The weather here is gorgeous. People are going to want to get out and about, especially as we have a bank holiday weekend. I’m planning to stay at home. After all, I’ll be spending quite a bit of time in Virtual Wiscon, which will mess with my time schedule.

Oh, and OutStories Bristol launched a new project today. I’ll tell you more about it tomorrow.

Coronavirus – Day #68

~ Cheryl

OK, the #GiveItUp125 thing is now over. I’m sure a lot of you are relieved. The rest of you, I hope you enjoyed the show.

Tomorrow I get back to normal-ish life.

The news from the “real” world is that MPs have voted to stop meeting remotely and instead convene in person from the beginning of June. The word is that Bozo is failing badly at Prime Minister’s Question Time and he wants to have his baying mob of back-benchers there to support him from now on.

Oh well, at least they are getting very well paid to risk their lives, unlike most NHS staff and other “key” employees.

Cheryl & Kevin Go to Paris

~ Cheryl

Here’s the final video in the travelogue series that Kevin and I have been doing for the One25 fundraiser. In this one Kevin climbs the Eiffel Tower. I miss meeting Diana Prince but do find that lesbian-owned bookstore. And I visit the Home of Comics.

If you have enjoyed the work we have done here, please consider donating to help One25.

Introducing France #GiveItUp125

~ Cheryl

Here we are folks, the final stage on my virtual world tour. France, of course, is famous for its food. In this video I have breakfast and lunch. The latter includes far more cheese than is entirely sane, and a plate of escargots. Enjoy!

In case you were wondering, I did eat all of the snails. So much garlicky goodness.

As always, if you have enjoyed these videos, please donate to help One25. Every little helps. I’m only on 68% and today is the final day of the challenge.

Coronavirus – Day #67

~ Cheryl

Important as all this fundraising is, I will be glad when this week is over. I might be mostly free of virus-like symptoms, but I’m not fit enough for long work days. Thursday and Friday won’t be quiet as I have to cram a week’s worth of day job into two days, but I don’t have a radio show next week so I won’t be working all weekend.

Today’s bit news from the real world is that Hungary has passed a law banning gender changes. There are going to be a lot of very frightened trans people in Hungary right now. It will be interesting to see how the EU reacts to asylum claims. They must know that the same sort of thing is likely to happen in the UK soon, so anything they do for Hungarians will set a precedent.

I don’t think the UK government will start repealing laws just yet, but what they are doing is issuing “guidance”. Well, the government isn’t doing it. Random politicians are doing it. But that’s just testing the water. What I expect to happen is a new “interpretation” of the Equality Act which defines trans rights as being discrimination on the grounds of sex so, even though trans people are theoretically protected, anyone who tries to give equal rights to trans people will open themselves up to being sued for discrimination under the Act.

Oh, and the government has also been boasting about taking away our freedom of movement. I note that I do not earn enough to be allowed to move to the UK as an immigrant, but I apparently also earn too much to be eligible for income support under the government’s scheme to help the self-employed during the pandemic.

Introducing Canada #GiveItUp125

~ Cheryl

Here’s the first video of the day from Canada. There’s not a huge amount of native food to talk about, but I did make my own poutine.

Check back later from more views of Canada from Kevin and from Nalo. In the meantime I’m going to look for some photos.

Coronavirus – Day #66

~ Cheryl

I have spent the entire day in Finland. The occasional piece of UK news from Twitter suggests that our government has got back into “persecute the immigrants” mode, rather than applauding their contribution to our health service. I guess that indicates some sort of return to “normal”.

Harald #GiveItUp125

~ Cheryl

My final set of photos from Finland is from my favourite restaurant, Harald. It is a very silly place, but the food is excellent. Besides, they are making fun of the Swedes, which is a very Finnish thing to do.

In Harald
Locals
Let's Go Viking!
The Wyrm
Boar
Kebab on a Sword
Meal
Charles
Happy Couple

Cheryl & Kevin Go To Finland

~ Cheryl

It is time for another Cheryl & Kevin Go To video. This time we are in Finland. There’s quite a bit of history so we get nefarious Russians, nefarious Swedes, and inevitably the nefarious British. There are also Moomins, Lenin, and of course sauna.

Introducing Finland #GiveItUp125

~ Cheryl ~ 3 Comments

Hello, and welcome to Virtual Finland. I’ve had a busy morning in the kitchen. You can see the results in this video.

The recipe that I used for the Karelian Pies is this one. I’m not hugely impressed with it. There seemed to be rather too much filling for the amount of pastry. But I did have to improvise quite a bit along the way.

In the video I promised you some photos. Here are the Karelian Pies:

And here is the cream tea with cloudberry jam:

For the benefit of folks from Devon and Cornwall who care passionately about such things, I put the cream on first because the cloudberry jam is a lot more liquid than a traditional English jam, and if you put the jam on first the cream will just slide straight off.

Coronavirus – Day #65

~ Cheryl

I’ve had a busy day in Virtual Australia. I have no idea what is happening in the UK.

Well that’s not quite true. The BSFA Award winners are being announced tonight, we hope, internet connections willing. More on that tomorrow. I’m going to watch from bed as I have a busy day tomorrow in Finland.

Thank You, Australia #GiveItUp125 #IDAHOBIT

~ Cheryl

Being in Virtual Australia on IDAHOBIT Day is a poignant reminder that I did most of my gender transition while living in Australia. There were a number of reasons for that, but one of them is that the medical support for transition was better in Australia than it is here in the UK. That’s even more true now. I will always be grateful for the support I got from friends in Australia, in particular the folks at the Melbourne Science Fiction Club who accepted me without question.

One of the disappointments about not being able to travel to New Zealand for Worldcon this year is that a planned visit to Melbourne has had to be cancelled too. Maybe another year.

The photo above was taken at the Wilson’s Promontory National Park, which is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been.