This otter was snapped sunning itself at the British Wildlife Centre by Jlhopgood, who shared the photo on flickr.
Please feel free to use this thread to natter about anything your heart desires. Is there anything great happening in your life? Anything you want to get off your chest? Reading a good book (or a bad one)? Anything in the news that you’d like to discuss? What have you created lately? Commiserations, felicitations, temptations, contemplations, speculations?
Categories: Life
Soggy here, innit? 
In memoriam: Diana Rigg 
Getting out the ‘yes’ 
100 books by women in 2016 
Hoyden About Town 
[Content note: reckless driving, narrowly escaping collision-related injury]
I’m still rather freaked out after almost being run over by a car yesterday. I’ve had close shaves before, but it has never been so bloody close, or involved a car going anywhere near as fast.
I am cursing my slow reaction time and not seeing the car tearing up the road after the green pedestrian light was given. But I was dealing with a person whose response to seeing a red light and a crowd of people crossing the intersection of Elizabeth and La Trobe Sts* was to **accelerate**. The speed they were going, there’s no way they were even close to slowing down before they hit the intersection.
I tend to be far more cautious when jaywalking across non-busy streets than when I’m walking with a green light – this will change.
*A major Melbourne CBD intersection for foot and vehicle traffic.
Holy crap, Perla, that sucks! The Harry Potter universe holds that some chocolate helps in traumatic situations, and I think that’s true in our world too.
I read on twitter this morning that the Botswana High Court has overturned a customary law which prevented women from inheriting the family home. So that is pretty great.
Mr angharad and I celebrated our fifteenth wedding anniversary this week. We didn’t do anything particularly fancy, but we still managed to have a lovely day.
Also it has just struck me that there will be no Dr Who tonight *pouty face*
(((hugs))) if you want them Perla, *hi-five* tree, congratulations angharad glad you and Mr had a lovely day.
I have been reading Grogs Gamut’s 5th Estate. He says nice things about HaT 🙂
“I have been reading Grogs Gamut’s 5th Estate. He says nice things about HaT :)”
He does? Neat! I have been waiting for the book on request at the library, and am looking forward to reading it (it should be in real soon now).
Reading on Twitter about this anti-abortion march in Melbourne (?) has made me wonder how many anti-choice blokes would still be anti-choice if pregnancy meant that they were required to care for their partner 24/7 for the duration of the pregnancy (I’m sure there are some cases where this is in fact the case). Would that change their attitudes to the amount of work that goes into growing a baby and make them think more about what it actually means for the pregnant person and how that might feel if you don’t want to be a pregnant person?
@Perla Eeesh, that must have been terrifying – I’m really glad you weren’t hurt. What a atrocious driver! Chocolate is definitely in order.
@angharad Congratulations! If your marriage was a fashion era, it would be retro and in style right now.
This morning I went to a live broadcast of Radio National’s The Music Show. It was indescribably good, and I came home and bought tickets to all the bands that played. There was Paul Kelly and a lady with a huge rectangular double-bass recorder, and La Soiree, and a guy doing Chet Baker, and an Italian band called Kalascima. I got a front-row seat!
Mindy, you’re too nice. I reckon those blokes should donate a kidney for each pregnancy they bully a woman into keeping. Since they don’t seem to believe in bodily autonomy.
I went to the 2nd Sydney CryptoParty (party like it’s 1984!) last night. A great deal of fascinating material to learn, many people with great knowledge to share but not so great presentation skills, sadly. The night displayed both the strengths of grassroots volunteerism and technical possibilities and the constraints of a small group with the necessary skills to share. Still, that’s the point of the movement – having more people learn these skills and pass them on as the movement expands the ways these nights are organised and evolves its manuals for teaching this material.
Ooh, Ankh-Morpork TV series is in the works! For reals!
Ah, tigtog — I meant to email you to tell you I’d decided not to go to the cryptoparty.
I had a night in with my partner instead, and made a lamb roast, with a lovely shoulder from my local butcher (a proper old-skool butcher who knows where his meat comes from). I’ve cut down on my meat quite a bit this year, for ethical and environmental reasons. Most of my meals are now vegetarian (and thoroughly delicious), so last night’s dinner (and the shepherd’s pie that I’ll make from the leftovers) is a rare treat to be savoured!
When rollling my eyes at the phenomenon 50 Shades became it never occurred to me that it might be helping people. Fascinating article by Mr ‘EL James’ Niall Leonard. I might just buy his book when it comes out in Australia too.
I have about fourteen half-finished posts, mostly with titles like “Tony Jones: time to take a long, hard look at yourself”, sitting in a folder, and I can’t seem to finish any of them. Head, to quote Bruce Banner, is a bag full of cats. And just got an email from my copy editor saying my book jacket proofs are delayed because of “a problem with the design”. WHO WRITES THAT SENTENCE TO AN AUTHOR?
Vibes, Perla.
Unemployed again after the end of my last contract, ho-hum! Agency offered me part-time work last week that I turned down, because it was a financial step down and would have had to leave fulltime to start immediately and now, in unemployment land, I find myself second guessing the decision. Am looking forward to a week or so off, to recoup (and hopefully finally get the all-clear from the doctors after that whole “hospitalised with blood clots in the lungs” deal in March) – if I can only not panic about our ever-shrinking bank balance.
Thanks for the kind words everyone! Congratulations angharad! Sorry to hear that Aphie – I hope things improve.
@Mindy and Aqua – it always amazes me how cavalier some anti-choice blokes can be about carrying a pregnancy to term (or not). It sometimes seems as if some of them think “you” just change shape around the middle, pee a bit more than usual and then just pop it out after a set amount of weeks!
And that they would totally be fine with strangers removing all other options if they could experience pregnancy.
My marriage is soooo ’90’s. :-).
I willingly offer up the last month of my first pregnancy when I couldn’t walk for more than five minutes at a time because of hip problems to all those who think pregnancy is sex —-> baby.
Tonight I am watching QandA but listening to lectures, because after last week I think QandA is bad for my blood pressure. Why so many shots of Sophie Mirabella looking down her nose while other people are talking?
Finally caught up on last week’s Q&A. Wow. The treatment of Kate Ellis by the male panelists. Just, wow. Were they trying to demonstrate sexism, disrespect and total lack of awareness of privilege? Lowlights: the “boys” (Tanner and Pyne) get together across party lines and interrupt Kate Ellis while she’s trying to talk about sexism; male audience member lectures woman on what is feminism; Pyne thinks Ellis talks too much when the male panelists dominated, as usual; Abbott can’t be misogynist because he loves his wife and daughters (Pyne); Pyne denies Abbott statements that are on record… Because if you say it didn’t happen enough times it might make it true; Pyne accuses female audience member with a legitimate question of being Labor ring in; Ackermann excuses Parrot’s despicable remarks about Lebanese Muslims; Tanner waffles and can’t quite decide whether Parrot incited violence or if Abbott sexist; Pyne: Abbott is a feminist (agreeing with audience member); Ackermann dismisses Parrot calling Lebanese Muslims “vermin” because apparently no one would be outraged if Christians were called vermin and Christians don’t riot in Australia; international guest speaks eloquently but hardly gets a word in…
Saw actual otters today! I’m so proud of myself for finally getting to the zoo.
@MrRabbit – yeah that one had me vibrating with rage. I used to like watching QandA but just lately it seems they have one tolerable and/or interesting one interspersed with one where I am in serious danger of breaking my tv (really I am a mild and non-violent person, no really…).
This week’s seemed to be talking a lot about ‘the speech’, which also featured in a segment on Media Watch too.