elfbert   !

Hope you've been having a fantastic day.

 I'm home alone as I was supposed to be teaching this weekend and P has taken the kids to Cumbria so he could do the Wasdale Fell Race.

I have been doing lots of essay avoidance - cleaning, sorting, breadmaking . . .

It sounds like they aren't having a great time up there - Small Boy has got H's bug and has been the Amazing Vomiting Child since he got there. And P called to say that he had pulled out of the race - he was retching and shaking and could barely run, so decided to quit about half way through. He didn't sound too gutted when he rang - and he knows he made the right decision. Sometimes a race just doesn't go your way, but if you are feeling ill then there is no point in doing the macho bullshit and pressing on - you only end up in serious trouble.

It's a shame for him though and he's disappointed. But I'm proud of him for being strong enough to know it was time to quit - if that makes sense.

Title: Funk Soul Brother
Author: nebula99
Fandom: Criminal Minds
Rating: FRAO/NC-17
Type: Slash
Pairing: Reid/Hotch
Prompt: "Dancing is a perpendicular expression of a horizontal desire"
Kink Dancing - for slash_girl for rounds_of_kink and #022 Twins/Non Canon Siblings for wtf27

Author’s Note: Beta read by the ever helpful slash_girl. Thank you!

( Funk Soul Brother )

My shoggoth has offspring.

Bewdley-Lazarus has begotten an (as yet) unnamed shoggoth which my mother has taken to Cumbria. She rang last night, very excited, to tell me she had made her very first sourdough loaf.

The Cumbrian branch of the family is planning to send offspring to Glasgow also.

So this particular shoggoth has spawned all the way from Plymouth to Glasgow. Bewdley is from good stock, although I suspect mine is the only one with a name.

Went for a run this morning - 7 miles. Wahey!

Now I need to start looking around for a race to aim for. There is a nice half marathon in parkland in October but a 10K before then would be good.

And this is an excuse to use a new icon. Not the world's best icon maker, but hey . . . 

 Babysitting issue got resolved as P's night out was cancelled. So I went to Book Group without feeling guilty.

There wasn't a whole lot to say about Anna Karenina - being as I was the only one who had finished it. The rest of the conversation did manage to piss me off though. There are a couple of people who all know each other and socialise outside of the group and who usually spend all the time talking about their kids. It bugs me and a couple of others, especially as it gets very exclusive of those who don't have children. However, we usually manage to talk about something else.

This evening though, one of them started on about how her children's school is thinking of bringing in a school uniform and how the parents don't want it etc. My kids go to a school with a uniform which is polo shirt, school sweatshirt, trousers/skirts - nothing too formal - and I like it. It is hard wearing, means they don't ruin their other clothes, saves me money buying clothes, they look smart and it gives them a sense of belonging and community.

These 2 women then started on about how the parents at their school wouldn't accept their children's creativity being stifled etc.  and how powerful the parents' voice is etc. I have to admit, I got a little snarky. Well, the implication was that other parents and other children were less "special" than them and I don't like that.

One of them was pretty damn rude to me and it really got my hackles up. They can have their opinions, I don't care if people don't agree with me - that's life - but don't put everyone else down because we are not the same as you. 

This middle-class snobbery is worse than your out and out rich-folks-turning-their-noses-up-at-peasants stuff because they like to think how liberal they are. They boast about their vegan credentials and don't allow their kids to watch cartoons or eat sweets. And they don't mix with proper poor people - the ones who smoke, or drink cider instead of cabernet sauvignon, or vote Tory. It is such a sheltered world and they are all so busy congratulating themselves on their liberal credentials that they don't even notice the bubble of fucking privilege they are living in.

If it wasn't for the lovely people, I wouldn't bother.

 Babysitter for tomorrow night has just cancelled on me.

I have Book Group - for which I have read Anna Sodding Karenina - and P has a reunion of the people he joined the police with.

Both of us are going to completely resent having to miss it. One of us is going to have to.

Bollocks.

Warm and sunny today so I sat in the garden and sewed elastic on ballet shoes. I also finished Anna Karenina, which I have been reading for Book Group.

Thank goodness for that.

800 pages, which have been partially speed read due to excessive dullness and a lack of time. And I can't say that I've enjoyed the experience particularly. It was readable enough but nothing much happened and I found it hard to care about any of the characters. Levin was the most well drawn, but he was pretty dull and the rest of them were fairly inconsequential. 

I didn't get the whole "Anna" thing either. She appeared to have no personality whatsoever and the breakdown at the end was fairly unbelievable. The blurb on the book jacket talks about her as the the most wonderful literary heroine . . . but there was nothing about her to identify or empathise with.

It's one of those books that I had always meant to read and now I have. So I can get on with reading books that I actually want to read.

 Small Boy will take his first ever dancing exam this afternoon - Preparatory Tap.

He's come a long way in 8 weeks and as long as he refrains from sticking his hand down his pants and making faces at the examiner, he should be okay.

*fingers crossed*

 P has just got back from a run and proceeded to fry 2 smoked mackerel. The room, the house and the entire atmosphere absolutely stink.

I am having to try sooooooo hard not to grab the designated stinky fish pan and BRAIN him with it.

Gah!!! Stinking fish invading my breathing space. 

*eyes sharp implements fondly* 

ETA: And now he's eating. Loudly. Chomping noisily on the LAST of the bread whilst consuming the stinking fish. 

*growls*

Intolerant? Moi?

 Happy Birthday alexandral

С Днем Рождения

(hope I got that right *G*)

 And again, another father has killed himself and his children, leaving a bereaved and devastated mother behind. The story is being discussed on the radio right now; I may be looking at this in a too black-and-white way but I can't think of anything that justifies his actions. It is the ultimate act of revenge on a woman that doesn't want you anymore - to take away her children.

 There are times that I am ashamed to be British. I'm ashamed of my government and of my society's attitude. We are one of the richest countries in the world and yet we treat the people who struggle here in search of asylum as though they are criminals.

This article, The Hell of Being an Asylum Seeker, doesn't contain anything particularly new, but the stories of these people are still shocking. To escape from torture, to leave your family and your life behind, to give your life savings to someone to smuggle you here in the back of a truck - all to end up being locked up and expected to live in poverty. The entire system is a disgrace. We have talented, well qualified people who come here and we won't even let them work.

I remember having a friend complain to me about all the "health tourists" coming to the UK - arriving and collapsing in A&E to get the life saving treatment from the NHS that they couldn't get in their own countries. I suspect a lot of the stories are apocryphal and even if they aren't - why condemn someone for doing what most people would if they could get the chance? We are lucky to live here - we have enough to eat, we can criticise the government, we can vote - it's not perfect by any means, but most of us should be thankful we've never had to seek asylum elsewhere.

 Most kittehs detest vaccuum cleaners.

Not this one, I guess.

Hurrah for ingenuity!

And now, back to the assignment of doooooooooooooooom. Which is what all my assignments seem to be called these days . . .

ETA: Cat tales from nearer to home. Have just had to pick up and rescue a frog from the cat. Frogs make excellent cat toys - pat them and they jump and if you are lucky, they will squeal as well. I explained that it wasn't a nice game, and what's more the squealing is annoying, and replaced the frog in the pond.

Cat is now exhausted and having a bit of a lie down. It's important to have regular naps during the day, otherwise they won't have the energy for a really big sleep at night. (misquoted from Red Dwarf I think).

not bad, not bad

gakked from thezonefic and slash_girl

 Went to see Iron Man this evening. It was fun.

Today we drove past this road. No kidding, that's what it is called.

 

No doubt the residents are fed up to the back teeth of folk pulling over to take a picture, but srsly - what a name!