alittlebriton

Had a lovely Bank Holiday away at gingerpig's.

Drove up Sunday early evening and had a very clear run so arrived in Suffolk just before 8pm - dinner of pizza, wine and chat and before we knew it we were into the wee small hours and retired at 1:30am.

On Monday we manage to leave the house briefly for a wander round the barns (antiques and jewellery) and I may have purchased a few small items which were calling my name. Coffee and cake in the cafe followed by a snacky lunch and we - perhaps unsurprisingly- had 6 eps of Heated Rivalry on the background whilst chatting.

After dinner I talked GP into watching the feeds for the Met gala (who are we and why are we watching this)? We had the feeds from the Mark and Carlyle hotels in on You Tube from 9pm to watch the departures, GP had her laptop queued up to the Vogue feed from the Met which was due to start at 11pm
(to make sure we missed nithing), and I was following the Met instagram on my tablet and in the London Loons Whatsapp chat for gossip.

A lot of time was GP and I saying who are these people (apparently we are now olds and not at all tuned in to pop culture) - fortunately the London Loons WhatsApp mostly knew the answers or the Met insta did. We were all hilariously scathing about most of the outfits (disappointing lack of imagination for most I felt) - though we were very impressed when Connor got his arms out on the Met steps and with Hudson leaving the Mark in little more than a bathrobe and stunning eye make up.

There was a sad lack of stills from the event on Tuesday - but some notable commentary on the fact the boys partied until dawn. If you can't do that in New York in your 20s when can you? I commend their ability to remain upright on so little sleep!

However from Wednesday onwards there's been a positive abundance of behind the scenes pixs and videos, from the sweet, to awkward to hilarious (the vids of Hudson trying to squash Connor into the matador jacket probably caused various designers/fashion houses to have a heart attack whilst the rest of us chortled in glee). I've been deriving a significant amount of second hand joy from them particularly in the hell week of local elections.

Speaking of which I pulled a 16 hour day on Thursday working as a poll clerk in Richmond. In some ways quite enjoyable (we were the party polling station with rounds of applause for first time voters and a chatty electorate), we were visited by many lovely dogs (despite the no dogs allowed sign) and lots of parents bringing kids along who we encouraged to pop the ballot in the box. I crashed as soon as I got in at midnight (fortunately didn't work the count) but the team whatsapp went mad at 4:30am the the news of the landslide. Every single one of the 54 councillors elected in Richmond was LibDem. I'd worried Reform might get a foot in the door but the voters came through with a very clear message.

Unsurprisingly my ward in Merton had voted our 3 Labour councillors back in with a strong majority, but more heartening the Greens were clearly in second place and Reform and the Tories were trounced. Forvoverall control of Merton - Labour have 39 councillors, LibDems 19, Conservative 4 and Indie's 2. Considering how many St George's flags turned up in the borough at one point I was very glad to see Reform not get any seats and they only made it to second place in one of the 20 wards.

Unfortunately nationally Reform took 1400 seats and several councils but their councillors have a habit of either stepping down when they realise the work involved or they say shitty thing which get them suspended. Going on the results of last year's local elections they'll fuck up the councils where they have control and cancel many much needed services whilst increasing council tax. Such absolute muppets.

As usual at work there's too much to do and not enough time but I'm feeling less stressed about it than before my weekend away.

Today was out allotment plant sale - I bought things - and tomorrow I'll be spending a lot of time on my plot strimming, prepping and planting. This evening I went back to my piercer, replaced the 3 studs I'd lost overvthe last few weeks and got my helix done again. There'll be a couple more helix piercings this year and then I start planning new tattoo's for 2027!

Tonight I plan to drink wine, eat a decent meals, clean the flat and read fic.

TFI almost Friday.

Life has spiralled a little out of control since early April and I may just have a bit of a chance to get a grip this weekend.

Work is very much YUCK rather than YUM at the moment *crosses fingers* that things will improve throughout May.

BUT BUT...I am officially out of the office until Wednesday. I have some minor bits of work to put to bed tomorrow and then I am closing the laptop.

Tomorrow during daylight hours I have tip runs and work to do on the allotment.

Saturday is either more allotmenting or doing the tiny front garden - depending on if there is rain in the afternoon. Saturday evening and Sunday are about bringing more order back to the flat - and more tip/recycling runs.

Sunday late affernoon/early evening I head off to gingerpig for a proper short visit - as opposed to swinging by her place to pick her up/drop her off en route to other places. I'll be there Sunday evening, all day Monday and a chunk of Tuesday before heading home. Time to geek out about Heated Rivalry and other fannish stuff and things.

I've also found my Heated Rivalry peeps online - two group chats on Threads and a very busy London Loons WhatsApp group means I'm back in the deep end of enjoying a fandom and it is epic.

Soooooo much good fic is being produced it's impossible to stay current. Four of the juggernaut WIPs dropped new chapters on the same day (collective fandom meltdown) and names from the past are resurfacing with content. heresluck just dropped a fab Ilya centric video So What. Go watch and leave compliments!

My muses have woken up and what I though might be a short missing scene has grown legs and may turn into something else - if I can carve out time to write. Writing for the first time in 5 or 6 years. Who am I?

I've been buying what little legit merch is available (soundtrack reordered, book which is annotated script and BTS pics preordered). Alas the official merch shop ships to US/Canada only and is somewhat uninspired in their offerings. I know it's nominally a hocky show but I don't want a hockey jersey. But I would love a Boston Raiders T or a "Tell Peepol" or "Stupid Canadian Wolfbird" or even a "You Deserve Sunshine" vest top for the gym. Alas these are not on offer officially.

As might be expected - others are filling the gap!

I bought a WYCTMCTS DGTR CTMH WHSMF ISP NOWK WCHAWOET BCA T hoodie which is very fannishly in your face and huge, soft, comfy and perfect for scuttling to and from the gym. I may have also just had a blow out on T shirts and vest tops on the PageWings site. They have good reviews - unlike many of the other merchandisers - and a London Loon recommended them. They've stopped grouping HR merch as a separate collection and their search function is a bit of a pain - but I found what I wanted. They also have tons of rather lovely stuff.

Speaking of the London Loons a few of us are meeting up in July to go see the Tonsil Hockey podcasters who are hosting a live reread of Heated Rivalry eps 1 and 2 with a bunch of comedians - which may be either hilarious or cringe inducing. But it's a chance to meet new fannish people and I've not done that since my Buffy-Angel-Stargate days. When I got into TeenWolf most of the people were people I knew - but Heated Rivalry seems to be pulling in a whole new crowd. Or smooshing together people from fandoms that don't usually cross-pollinate.

There are also a couple of people going to the last HR party at the Clapham Grand on 16 May. Would have loved to have tagged along but it starts around 11pm, finishes at 3am and unfortunately Ive already committed to work at 10am the next day. So going to have to pass on that one.

Right - off to see if new fic has dropped and clean my kitchen!