Write Every Day: Day 12
12 May 2026 05:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sanguinityIntro/FAQ
My check-in: A paragraph, so far.
Day 12:glinda,
Day 11:acorn_squash, badly_knitted, china_shop, cornerofmadness, dswdiane, glinda, sanguinity, sylvan_witch, the_siobhan, trobadora, ysilme
Day 10:acorn_squash, badly_knitted, china_shop, cornerofmadness, dswdiane, goddess47, sanguinity, sylvanwitch, the_siobhan, trobadora, ysilme
( More days )
When you check in, please use the most recent post and say what day(s) you’re checking in for. Remember you can drop in or out at any time, and let me know if I missed anyone!
My check-in: A paragraph, so far.
Day 12:
glinda, Day 11:
acorn_squash, badly_knitted, china_shop, cornerofmadness, dswdiane, glinda, sanguinity, sylvan_witch, the_siobhan, trobadora, ysilmeDay 10:
acorn_squash, badly_knitted, china_shop, cornerofmadness, dswdiane, goddess47, sanguinity, sylvanwitch, the_siobhan, trobadora, ysilme( More days )
When you check in, please use the most recent post and say what day(s) you’re checking in for. Remember you can drop in or out at any time, and let me know if I missed anyone!
a somewhat less ambitious day
12 May 2026 07:13 pmthe_shoshannaa less physically but more emotionally exhausting day
We started the day with a non-overwhelming breakfast! Just a bunch of veggies sauteed up together, no eggs no bacon no beans no toast (but yes coffee, and her coffee could punch Superman through a wall). We were delighted! Also, when we asked where we could find a laundromat to wash some clothes, she let us use her machine. So Geoff put a load through and hung it to dry before we left for the day; I had surreptitiously been doing some sink laundry and also I don't sweat the way he does, but I too am glad to have been able to properly wash some things. (Still gotta sink-wash a bra this evening, though; I've had too many destroyed by machines to trust one I don't know.)Then we headed out to the bus station to catch a bus to the Hamptonne Country Life Museum https://www.jerseyheritage.org/visit/places-to-visit/hamptonne-country-life-museum/ . This was one of the things I specifically wanted to see while we're here, but sadly I was a bit disappointed. There was no living-history reenactor guide working today (the guy at the entry selling tickets said she would have been there but she had to go to a funeral, so I'm not going to complain), and the guide who took us around spent more time talking about what it was like to work there, and less about what it would have been like to live there in the various eras it represented (13th, 17th, and 19th centuries), than I was hoping for. (Honestly, a good episode of Historical Farm would have given me more -- thanks for putting me on to that show,
dorinda!) Still, it was interesting to poke around and look at things, and Geoff enjoyed it more than I did, which was good because I was the one who really wanted to go and if he'd been really disappointed I'd probably have felt guilty.We did see a nineteenth-century apple crusher (which I immediately recognized thanks to Historical Farms!) and got to taste some of the cider they produce there. It was just fermented juice, no added sugar or rum or any of the other things that might be added to improve the taste, and it was like drinking paint thinner, I couldn't even finish my small cup. The guide said it was probably about 5% alcohol, but it felt stronger. So maybe it's a good thing I couldn't finish it!
Interestingly, the average age of the people visiting the museum seemed to hover around 70 that day. "School must be in session," I said to myself.
We finished up in the cafe, where we split an unexciting packaged sausage roll and a jacket potato with tuna mayo and sweetcorn. I don't know if the potato was a local Jersey potato, but it at least was very good! This whole concept of baked potatoes with stuff on them was something entirely unknown to me until a visit to Edinburgh years ago, when we got a number of out-and-about meals from a jacket potato shop that would put any of dozens of salads or sauces or meats or whatnots on them; I remember having to work hard to keep them from also plopping a giant knob of butter inside the potato as a matter of course. I mean, a buttered baked potato is delicious, but if you're topping your potato with a tomato-cucumber salad tossed in a vinaigrette, two tablespoons of butter really does not improve the experience. Anyway, I always think of that place when I have a jacket potato topped with something unusual to me, such as, for instance, tuna mayo with sweetcorn.
The bus we took to the museum was the same line we took home yesterday afternoon and it had the electronic announcement screen, but it wasn't on so I had to track us with my phone again to know when to get off. Ah, well. We had a nice five-minute walk through houses and farms from the bus stop to the museum site, and when we left to go back to the bus stop, the guy in the ticket office told us that if, once we got to the street the bus ran down, we went the other way from the bus stop we would come to an interesting old dovecote. We did walk that way for a bit, but didn't see anything promising, so we turned around and went up to the bus stop.
Rather than taking it all the way back into the capital city, though, we went only three stops (again tracking progress on my phone, for lack of any non-tech way to know where we were or which stop was ours), got off, and walked about fifteen minutes through more houses and potato fields and mildly wooded areas to get to the Jersey War Tunnels https://www.jerseywartunnels.com/.
The occupying German armed forces had this big tunnel complex built, largely but not entirely by forced labor and slave labor, originally as an ammunition store and barracks, later as a potential hospital in case of an Allied assault on the island(s). Now it's been turned into a really excellent museum of the occupation. When we bought our admission tickets we were also given replica ID cards, establishing each of us as an actual Jerseyite whose story we could discover as we went through the exhibits. (I was given the identity of a middle-aged Jewish woman who, when she was arrested a few years into the occupation, managed to escape her guards and flee to someone who hid her until the war ended.)
We made our way through the tunnels, each of which has been set up as a gallery documenting a different aspect of the occupation or part of the war, in chronological order: from the first decision that the islands wouldn't be defended, to the arrival of the Nazi forces, the gradual tightening of restrictions and rations, various people's attempts at resistance, escape, and sometimes collaboration, the arrival of a Red Cross aid ship just as the food situation got desperate, the experience of watching D-Day (remember, you can see France from here!) while still not being freed and while the local German commander was maintaining he would hold fast, until the final surrender and the arrival of the UK troops who raised the Union Jack again, as we saw reenacted a few days ago.
One particularly effective device was life-size human figures with video screens for their heads showing recordings of actors, so that you could imagine actually meeting and talking to the person who was depicted speaking to you. Here's a German soldier, fluent in English, who has bought your child an ice cream; do you let your child take it? Here's another who wants to hire you to do his washing, and you need money desperately; do you take the job? Here's a farm woman talking about food rationing, and how lucky her family is to have some livestock and chickens -- but of course the German authorities closely watch everything, including recording every piglet born, and god help you if you're caught hiding one. Here's a starving Russian slave worker who has escaped his barracks and stolen some carrots from your field; what do you do?
One informational signboard talked about collaborators, including women who went with German soldiers. It did acknowledge that, aside from the fact that the soldiers might be young, handsome, and -- at least in the early years -- friendly and congenial, being friendly with them might also mean extra food and security for the woman (and her family), but no explicit link was drawn between that signboard (which also explained the derogatory term "jerrybags" for such women) and a later one that told the story of a young woman who was "assaulted" (details unspecified but clearly sexual) by a German soldier while she was serving him in a restaurant, slapped him, and was promptly shipped to a German prison camp, where she died. Nor was a comparison made between "jerrybags" and the local workers who took jobs with the occupying forces to help build the tunnel complex. It all reminded me of the way that women's sexual purity so often stands in for and symbolizes all kinds of morality. Why is a woman who accedes to a soldier's demands and blandishments more of a collaborator than a man who takes a job furthering the enemy's projects?
On another note: as we approached the end of the war, plaques on the wall announced various milestones. I was surprised at the strength of my desire to spit upon seeing the one marking Hitler's suicide.
Anyway, the whole thing was A Lot, and very well done.
Eventually we emerged from underground and caught the bus home again. Once again we stopped on our way home from the bus station for an early dinner, rather than go home and then have to leave again; we found a nice sort of Spanish-Asian fusion place on one of the squares we walked through that had pleasant outdoor seating. (For COVID-cautious reasons we prefer to eat outside when we can; we're also masking on the buses and in other indoor public spaces. We haven't seen a single other person masking, but no one seems to give us the stink-eye about it, except possibly for one person on the bus the other day who seemed not to want to sit next to me.) Geoff had delicious lasagna that came with yet more delicious chips, and I, having not yet had any seafood other than some salmon at the arts centre cafe, had a sizzling plate of scallops and veggies in a vaguely oyster-sauce kind of sauce? Also a nice big glass of merlot, and Geoff had a pint of a Spanish beer called Madri, which he liked but I did not care for. And then back to the guesthouse and blogging!
One thing that has both startled and amused me is that several people (including the ticket guy at the Hamptonne museum), on hearing that we're planning to go from Jersey to spend ten days in Guernsey, have reacted with "Ten days on Guernsey?" in a very what-the-hell-would-you-do-that-for? tone of voice. I'm assuming that this is an expression of inter-island rivalry and not a real indication that we'll be bored out of our minds 😂 I mean, we did accumulate a list of things we might want to see there, and hikes we might want to do, and also we'll probably take a day trip to Herm.
But before then we still have three days here on Jersey to fill! It's likely to rain tomorrow and Thursday, so maybe we won't do another big hike, but we would like to see the Jersey Zoo...but for now, it's oh-so-exciting hand laundry for me, and curling up with some internet.
Hugo novellas, part 1 (of presumably 2)
12 May 2026 09:01 amcahnHi happy somewhat delayed Hugo season!
I have been flirting with the novels but I guess my attention span these days is novella-sized, so that's all I've managed to get through so far.
Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite (Tordotcom) - On a starship where the inhabitants manage the long travel by recording their minds and swapping out bodies, a detective wakes up in another body and must investigate a murder, not just of a body but also of minds... I liked it! It wasn't super deep, and I was a bit side-eying the nod towards a potential ship at the end given what we know, but there was a lot of fun worldbuilding and yarn (knitting is both a character point and a minor plot point). I loved Ruthie and John, my faves.
The Summer War by Naomi Novik (Del Rey US; Del Rey UK) - A fairy tale where Celia, the youngest of the Grand Duke Veris' three children, deals with the aftermath of the summer war with the magical faerie-like summerlings and the fallout in her own family while navigating her own heritage.
I really really liked this one, actually. I just think Novik matches up very well with what I want, thematically, and of course her writing is great. There was one character I was like, well, this is obviously the most interesting character, and was pleased that the author was not uninterested.
What Stalks the Deep by T. Kingfisher (Nightfire; Titan UK) - I always like Kingfisher's writing but I think I can get a tiny bit tired of it? So I read the first of these, What Moves the Dead, a couple of years ago and enjoyed it a lot but then didn't feel like I needed to read any more in this series. Then I read this one and I enjoyed it but felt like I'd already kind of read it? Alex Easton, the narrator of these books, is a sworn soldier (with ka/kan pronouns) in the fictional country of Gallacia. Ka helps investigate odd horror-ish events... so, yeah, that was the plot of both of them. This one is set in the US. I guess the difference is that
I have been flirting with the novels but I guess my attention span these days is novella-sized, so that's all I've managed to get through so far.
Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite (Tordotcom) - On a starship where the inhabitants manage the long travel by recording their minds and swapping out bodies, a detective wakes up in another body and must investigate a murder, not just of a body but also of minds... I liked it! It wasn't super deep, and I was a bit side-eying the nod towards a potential ship at the end given what we know, but there was a lot of fun worldbuilding and yarn (knitting is both a character point and a minor plot point). I loved Ruthie and John, my faves.
The Summer War by Naomi Novik (Del Rey US; Del Rey UK) - A fairy tale where Celia, the youngest of the Grand Duke Veris' three children, deals with the aftermath of the summer war with the magical faerie-like summerlings and the fallout in her own family while navigating her own heritage.
I really really liked this one, actually. I just think Novik matches up very well with what I want, thematically, and of course her writing is great. There was one character I was like, well, this is obviously the most interesting character, and was pleased that the author was not uninterested.
Spoilers!
I am of course talking about Veris here. From Argent's POV he seems like a run-of-the-mill homophobe, but even though Celia kind of thinks so too, she also sees that he actually doesn't particularly care about the gay thing, he just cares very very much about having to be very very careful as he has had to be his whole life (in other ways). So I really liked that characterization which I thought was quite interesting (much more interesting than if he had just been a regular homophobe), and I loved that he came back at the end and was able to redeem himself a bit. And then of course the recurring theme of "let's save everyone, not just the people we love," which I always adore, and also I absolutely positively adored how the whole family figured themselves out and came together. I am SUCH a sucker for that. I really loved how Novik had such empathy for each one of them, and understood that sometimes people can be jerks (and in fact each of them behaves badly at one point or another) but it doesn't mean that's the entirety of their character.What Stalks the Deep by T. Kingfisher (Nightfire; Titan UK) - I always like Kingfisher's writing but I think I can get a tiny bit tired of it? So I read the first of these, What Moves the Dead, a couple of years ago and enjoyed it a lot but then didn't feel like I needed to read any more in this series. Then I read this one and I enjoyed it but felt like I'd already kind of read it? Alex Easton, the narrator of these books, is a sworn soldier (with ka/kan pronouns) in the fictional country of Gallacia. Ka helps investigate odd horror-ish events... so, yeah, that was the plot of both of them. This one is set in the US. I guess the difference is that
Spoilers for both books
in the first book they destroyed the fungus, and in this book, they saved the organism, yay! In both books it was very clear that Kingfisher's sympathy was with the non-human character, so it was nice for it to end well for it here.Hadestown (2nd US tour)
11 May 2026 09:06 pmcahnI have been really bad this year at getting out to see things, but I saw a couple of things! I'll talk about the first one here: hamsterwoman inspired me and I got to see Hadestown on tour! (The same cast she saw, even, although I didn't realize this until afterwards.) It was only here for two weeknights, clearly as a pit stop in between the two major metropolitan areas we live between. The theater was packed. The only empty spots I saw in the entire house were, hilariously, right in front of us (and must have been people who didn't show up for some reason, as the seats were definitely sold). I didn't buy tickets early enough and they were sold out when I first looked, but fortunately some opened up day of -- I wouldn't normally buy orchestra section for a show I didn't already know I'd love, but that's what I get for not planning ahead. But it turns out I did love it enough that I enjoyed the orchestra section tickets immensely, so it all turned out well.
The singers were all just extremely, extremely good, both as singers and as dancers (well, I guess Hades and Persephone didn't really dance a ton, but Eurydice in particular had a lot of parts where she had to combine with the ensemble), and really imprinted on me. To the extent where I went back and listened to the Broadway recording and was like "okay, sure, yeah, these are the same songs, but that's not MY cast." They were just really really almost scarily professional -- I really can't believe the Broadway cast is any better -- it was hard to believe that we were getting this kind of quality of cast. SO good.
Nickolaus Colón as Hades was THE standout performance of the night in a cast full of excellence. Seriously it was worth seeing it for him alone. The Persephone, Namisa Mdlalose Bizana, was also an excellent singer whose strength matched Colón's (a weak dancer, but as I said before she didn't have to do that much of it). I thought it was a great choice to have the really strong singers be the "gods" -- it really added something to it.
Eurydice (...I think we must have seen an understudy? The site says Hawa Kamara but I'm pretty sure that's not who we saw) and Orpheus (Jose Contreras) were also good but their voices were more sort of good in the way I expected them to be good, kind of. Orpheus, unfortunately, had the flaw (at least that night) that sometimes his top notes (he has a lot of falsetto notes, which is a bit weird?) were flat, and those were inevitably the notes where the song was supposed to be borderline-magic, and it unfortunately always threw me out of those bits because I'd be like "...but he's flat, augh!" The Fates (Gia Keddy, Miriam Navarrete, Jayna Wescoatt) were quite excellent -- both as singers and as an ensemble of three (as they basically did all their parts together, as one would expect). The Hermes (Rudy Foster) was also excellent. So were the ensemble. They were just all super super good.
The orchestra accompaniment was seated on-stage (it was a rather crowded stage at times) and I need to mention the pianist and the trombonist who both sometimes seemed to be participating in the action -- especially the trombonist, who occasionally got up from his seat and played his trombone mingling with the other actors, which was amazing. (I told D at intermission, "No one told me that the trombonist was the hero of this show!") I was especially watching him because now I have a kiddo who plays trombone, and he was using at least a couple of different mutes to make his trombone make a variety of sounds (A.'s trombone teacher showed us some of these at one point, for fun), and also sometimes he doubled as the xylophone player, which I thought was interesting!
I tend to operate one of two different ways with musicals. Either I go in knowing nothing or I go in having basically memorized the soundtrack. This was the former: I went in not knowing anything except that it was an AU retelling of Orpheus and Eurydice, and I'd picked up from osmosis there were trains, and I'd listened to a few of the songs beforehand to make sure I liked them well enough. The pros are that I get to be continuously surprised by the real thing, and the cons are that there are lots of spots where I just don't catch the words, because I have fairly poor speech processing. This was one where I think it was a good choice to go in knowing nothing, because there are so many parts where the music and the visuals work together so well that I think the effect would have been blunted if I'd known the music really well going in. (Hamilton is one where I think it was better to know the soundtrack ahead of time, as I don't think I'd have been able to make out the vast majority of the words otherwise.)
( Vague spoilers if you're like me and have never watched it before )
I think this is a show that I admire more than that I'm fannish about. It's kind of interesting -- it's almost like it's so polished that there aren't any weird cracks or rough edges to hang a fannish hat on, so to speak. So I didn't feel the desire to see it again the next day (not that I would have, but I've absolutely been to theater events where I was like "okay, I would be very strongly tempted go to see this again tomorrow if I could spare the time") but if the tour comes back next year I'd almost definitely go if Colón were still in it, and even if not I'd strongly consider going.
hamsterwoman inspired me and I got to see Hadestown on tour! (The same cast she saw, even, although I didn't realize this until afterwards.) It was only here for two weeknights, clearly as a pit stop in between the two major metropolitan areas we live between. The theater was packed. The only empty spots I saw in the entire house were, hilariously, right in front of us (and must have been people who didn't show up for some reason, as the seats were definitely sold). I didn't buy tickets early enough and they were sold out when I first looked, but fortunately some opened up day of -- I wouldn't normally buy orchestra section for a show I didn't already know I'd love, but that's what I get for not planning ahead. But it turns out I did love it enough that I enjoyed the orchestra section tickets immensely, so it all turned out well.The singers were all just extremely, extremely good, both as singers and as dancers (well, I guess Hades and Persephone didn't really dance a ton, but Eurydice in particular had a lot of parts where she had to combine with the ensemble), and really imprinted on me. To the extent where I went back and listened to the Broadway recording and was like "okay, sure, yeah, these are the same songs, but that's not MY cast." They were just really really almost scarily professional -- I really can't believe the Broadway cast is any better -- it was hard to believe that we were getting this kind of quality of cast. SO good.
Nickolaus Colón as Hades was THE standout performance of the night in a cast full of excellence. Seriously it was worth seeing it for him alone. The Persephone, Namisa Mdlalose Bizana, was also an excellent singer whose strength matched Colón's (a weak dancer, but as I said before she didn't have to do that much of it). I thought it was a great choice to have the really strong singers be the "gods" -- it really added something to it.
Eurydice (...I think we must have seen an understudy? The site says Hawa Kamara but I'm pretty sure that's not who we saw) and Orpheus (Jose Contreras) were also good but their voices were more sort of good in the way I expected them to be good, kind of. Orpheus, unfortunately, had the flaw (at least that night) that sometimes his top notes (he has a lot of falsetto notes, which is a bit weird?) were flat, and those were inevitably the notes where the song was supposed to be borderline-magic, and it unfortunately always threw me out of those bits because I'd be like "...but he's flat, augh!" The Fates (Gia Keddy, Miriam Navarrete, Jayna Wescoatt) were quite excellent -- both as singers and as an ensemble of three (as they basically did all their parts together, as one would expect). The Hermes (Rudy Foster) was also excellent. So were the ensemble. They were just all super super good.
The orchestra accompaniment was seated on-stage (it was a rather crowded stage at times) and I need to mention the pianist and the trombonist who both sometimes seemed to be participating in the action -- especially the trombonist, who occasionally got up from his seat and played his trombone mingling with the other actors, which was amazing. (I told D at intermission, "No one told me that the trombonist was the hero of this show!") I was especially watching him because now I have a kiddo who plays trombone, and he was using at least a couple of different mutes to make his trombone make a variety of sounds (A.'s trombone teacher showed us some of these at one point, for fun), and also sometimes he doubled as the xylophone player, which I thought was interesting!
I tend to operate one of two different ways with musicals. Either I go in knowing nothing or I go in having basically memorized the soundtrack. This was the former: I went in not knowing anything except that it was an AU retelling of Orpheus and Eurydice, and I'd picked up from osmosis there were trains, and I'd listened to a few of the songs beforehand to make sure I liked them well enough. The pros are that I get to be continuously surprised by the real thing, and the cons are that there are lots of spots where I just don't catch the words, because I have fairly poor speech processing. This was one where I think it was a good choice to go in knowing nothing, because there are so many parts where the music and the visuals work together so well that I think the effect would have been blunted if I'd known the music really well going in. (Hamilton is one where I think it was better to know the soundtrack ahead of time, as I don't think I'd have been able to make out the vast majority of the words otherwise.)
( Vague spoilers if you're like me and have never watched it before )
I think this is a show that I admire more than that I'm fannish about. It's kind of interesting -- it's almost like it's so polished that there aren't any weird cracks or rough edges to hang a fannish hat on, so to speak. So I didn't feel the desire to see it again the next day (not that I would have, but I've absolutely been to theater events where I was like "okay, I would be very strongly tempted go to see this again tomorrow if I could spare the time") but if the tour comes back next year I'd almost definitely go if Colón were still in it, and even if not I'd strongly consider going.
Write Every Day: Day 11
11 May 2026 06:28 pmsanguinityIntro/FAQ
My check-in: Had a brainstorming convo about possible directions and inspirations for the auction story. Nothing decisive yet, but some leads have opened up. Alibi sentence for good measure.
Day 11:china_shop, sanguinity
Day 10:acorn_squash, badly_knitted, china_shop, cornerofmadness, dswdiane, goddess47, sanguinity, sylvanwitch, the_siobhan, trobadora
Day 9:badly_knitted, china_shop, cornerofmadness, dswdiane, goddess47, sanguinity, the_siobhan, trobadora
( More days )
When you check in, please use the most recent post and say what day(s) you’re checking in for. Remember you can drop in or out at any time, and let me know if I missed anyone!
My check-in: Had a brainstorming convo about possible directions and inspirations for the auction story. Nothing decisive yet, but some leads have opened up. Alibi sentence for good measure.
Day 11:
china_shop, sanguinityDay 10:
acorn_squash, badly_knitted, china_shop, cornerofmadness, dswdiane, goddess47, sanguinity, sylvanwitch, the_siobhan, trobadoraDay 9:
badly_knitted, china_shop, cornerofmadness, dswdiane, goddess47, sanguinity, the_siobhan, trobadora( More days )
When you check in, please use the most recent post and say what day(s) you’re checking in for. Remember you can drop in or out at any time, and let me know if I missed anyone!
We did it! Also, OOF
11 May 2026 07:31 pmthe_shoshannaToday the weather was absolutely gorgeous, sunny and mildly warm and a steady wind from the north -- and that last was important because today was our day to do a challenging hike along the north coast, and the last thing you want is a wind blowing you off the cliff!
We had another huge breakfast at the guesthouse -- honestly, I'm becoming less able to eat them as the week goes on. I'm just not used to either that much volume of food at breakfast, or that much dietary fat; fat is very filling! And today's omelet/scramble included the bacon I didn't eat yesterday. We asked for vegetables tomorrow, lots of veggies please. After that I think I may opt out of cooked breakfast entirely for a day or so, and just have muesli with fruit and milk; it's still got a lot of nuts, but that fat doesn't gorge me the way eggs and bacon do.
Anyway, after that we caught a bus up to the northwest corner of the island, to a ruin called Grosnez Castle. We weren't quite sure which way it was from the bus stop, but we got to chatting with a slightly older couple who had also gotten off the bus, and they were confident it was thataway, so off we all went. Except that we walked faster than them, and anyway they were going to be turning left/counterclockwise at the edge of the land to go geocaching, while we were turning right/clockwise to pick up a coastal trail. A few days ago we overheard a woman complaining to a group of friends that the trail she'd tried to follow had been really poorly marked and she'd ended up walking several kilometers further than she should have had to, but we found it pretty clear throughout the day; the path was always obvious, and there were occasional signs. The only problem was that sometimes there were a couple of possible paths and we weren't sure which one was best -- but I had downloaded a GPS app and loaded into it a trail from I think it was a Jersey Heritage site? Anyway it kept us on the extremely curvy and narrow.
We didn't bother exploring the castle ruin, because we wanted to get walking; we knew where we were hoping to end up but really weren't sure how long it would take us to get there. So off we went!
The trail was much like the cliff trails we were on in Wales last year: narrow, often only a yard or so from Certain Death but safe enough if you weren't stupid about it, with absolutely gorgeous views along the cliffs and out to sea, where we could see Guernsey and Sark (and probably Herm too) in the distance. And also France, but that's old hat to us by now. (I was amused to get a text from our mobile-phone provider informing me that I was now roaming on a French network, though!) We tromped along happily, admiring everything including our own stamina. There was a lot of up and down, as the trail wended its way through and around and down into the places where the sea has cut deeply into the land.
There are supposed to be a few puffins in that area, a small colony, but we didn't expect to see them, and indeed we did not. We did, however, see the giant statue of a pair of puffins that has been put up to mark their presence!
We had caught a 10:30 bus and started walking at 11:30, and at about 1:30 we arrived in the town of Grève de Lecq, which greeted us with perfectly salubrious public toilets, and a beautiful curving stretch of sand beach, and a very nice beachside cafe with outdoor seating. As I said to Geoff, that's my kind of hiking: rugged terrain, gorgeous views, crashing ocean waves, and a pub every two hours! We split a pint of Liberation ale (unfortunately no longer actually brewed on Jersey) and a piping hot plate of chips with a sort of chili mayo dip, and Geoff also bought me a bottle of water, because I hate the taste of the tap water at our guesthouse and had meant to bring an empty water bottle to fill along the way but forgot. (Look, I was managing all the logistics of getting us to the start of the hike, and keeping us on the right trail, and keeping an eye on the bus times to get us home again from various possible bailout points, and I did remember to bring the bag of trail mix. I dropped one stitch. And then I had a bottle of tasty water anyway!)
We headed out again at two, but fortunately only got about five minutes down the road before Geoff realized he'd left his camera on the table! So I waited while he went back for it; the waitress had kindly set it aside when she saw it had been forgotten. So Geoff ended up walking a bit further than me today, and accordingly has slightly greater bragging rights 😀
Anyway, from there we continued on the same kind of cliffside trail (and occasionally road), except that we made a small detour around a recreational shooting range that was flying the red flags that meant, according to all the signs, ACTIVE SHOOTING IN PROGRESS, DO NOT ENTER. We did not enter! We did see a couple of guys with bows as we skirted the edge of the restricted area, and a little further on we heard a fair amount of gunfire.
Right at the point where we detoured, we also stopped to look at some odd-looking sheep grazing in a field beside the road. Another couple of hikers were already there, looking at the sheep and chatting with the shepherd, a young man who was happy to tell us that they were an unusual breed called Manx Loaghtan (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manx_Loaghtan); he said, and we could see, that they often had four horns, but Wikipedia says they sometimes have six! We definitely didn't see any six-horned ones. And a signpost next to the field he and they were in told us that the conical hill in the center of the field, on the edge of the cliff overlooking the ocean, was an ancient hill fort, which had been fortified in various ways by multiple succeeding cultures and forces. So much history, just lying around everywhere!
We walked past many many potato fields, and startled several grouse out of the gorse as we walked by, and saw a tractor moving through a field and followed by a flock of hopeful gulls (or similar), and encountered a fair number of other walkers, either coming the other way or overtaking us. We don't generally overtake others, except for one older couple whom we leapfrogged a few times as we and they alternately stopped to rest, snack, or don or doff layers. Strange to think that we also qualify as an older couple now!
We made it to our ultimate goal, the evocatively named Devil's Hole, a deep crater and blowhole in the oceanside cliff, at about 3:15. Except that we weren't actually there yet; we had arrived at the Devil's Hole bus stop, from which we could get home, but the Devil's Hole itself was a ten-minute walk further on, steeply down through woods as we approached the edge of the water. Climbing back up was not fun ("ten minutes there, fifteen minutes back"), but the Devil's Hole itself was worth it: a wide and dramatically deep and dangerous hole in the rock, and fascinating to stare down into. A signboard warned onlookers that the ground beyond the constructed path and viewing platform was crumbly and unstable, adding, almost but not quite in these words, "Jersey Fire and Rescue rescues twenty or thirty people a year who try to climb down there and can't get back up, don't be a dumbass!" It was indeed sooooo tempting to hop the fence just to get a better look down the throat of the crater, but we generally try not to be dumbasses, so we did not. Sadly it was low tide, so the seawater was not crashing in the crater, but we could see it ominously slapping around at the bottom, as the waves washed the outer side of the rock.
There was also a big statue of the devil beside the path down, mostly cheesy but fun to see.
We slogged back up the path to the parking lot where the bus would stop, had about twenty minutes to sit and rest, and then the bus arrived that would take us back home! Excellent timing. Well, first it took us five or six stops further out, to the end of its route, and then it turned around and took us home.
You could not pay me to drive on these roads. The roadway was often barely six inches wider than the bus, and yet was a two-way road; several times either the bus or the oncoming vehicle had to brake hard, back up, and pull into some invisible but marginally wider spot -- or just into someone's driveway -- so that we could squeeze past each other. Truck drivers and oncoming buses often flipped their rear-view mirrors in to make more room. In the more rural northern part of the route, the bus driver often honked several times as he approached blind curves. If there was a bicyclist in the road, there would often be a line of several cars creeping along behind them, since it was rarely possible to get around them (and you couldn't pay me to bike these roads either). As an admiring and occasionally freaked out passenger, though, bus rides like that are pretty cool! Also, the bus we took home was a newer one, and it actually announced every upcoming stop both aloud and on an electronic screen, which was remarkably civilized compared to the way I'd had to carefully track our progress on previous bus rides so as to know where we were and when we should get off. It wasn't actually helpful, though, since we were going to the end of the line, the big main bus station in the center of town, so we didn't need help identifying it. But it's good to know that some buses, at least, have that system!
Rather than get home and then drag ourselves out again for dinner, on our way home from the bus station we stopped at a likely-looking pub that had outdoor seating and split a big order of fish and chips; a "coronation chicken tart" that turned out to be curried chicken salad on top of a flaky pastry, garnished with salad greens; and another pint of Liberation Ale. Then back to the room for collapsing, showering, and blogging. And here we are!
Spoiler: we did not get blown off the cliff.
We had another huge breakfast at the guesthouse -- honestly, I'm becoming less able to eat them as the week goes on. I'm just not used to either that much volume of food at breakfast, or that much dietary fat; fat is very filling! And today's omelet/scramble included the bacon I didn't eat yesterday. We asked for vegetables tomorrow, lots of veggies please. After that I think I may opt out of cooked breakfast entirely for a day or so, and just have muesli with fruit and milk; it's still got a lot of nuts, but that fat doesn't gorge me the way eggs and bacon do.
Anyway, after that we caught a bus up to the northwest corner of the island, to a ruin called Grosnez Castle. We weren't quite sure which way it was from the bus stop, but we got to chatting with a slightly older couple who had also gotten off the bus, and they were confident it was thataway, so off we all went. Except that we walked faster than them, and anyway they were going to be turning left/counterclockwise at the edge of the land to go geocaching, while we were turning right/clockwise to pick up a coastal trail. A few days ago we overheard a woman complaining to a group of friends that the trail she'd tried to follow had been really poorly marked and she'd ended up walking several kilometers further than she should have had to, but we found it pretty clear throughout the day; the path was always obvious, and there were occasional signs. The only problem was that sometimes there were a couple of possible paths and we weren't sure which one was best -- but I had downloaded a GPS app and loaded into it a trail from I think it was a Jersey Heritage site? Anyway it kept us on the extremely curvy and narrow.
We didn't bother exploring the castle ruin, because we wanted to get walking; we knew where we were hoping to end up but really weren't sure how long it would take us to get there. So off we went!
The trail was much like the cliff trails we were on in Wales last year: narrow, often only a yard or so from Certain Death but safe enough if you weren't stupid about it, with absolutely gorgeous views along the cliffs and out to sea, where we could see Guernsey and Sark (and probably Herm too) in the distance. And also France, but that's old hat to us by now. (I was amused to get a text from our mobile-phone provider informing me that I was now roaming on a French network, though!) We tromped along happily, admiring everything including our own stamina. There was a lot of up and down, as the trail wended its way through and around and down into the places where the sea has cut deeply into the land.
There are supposed to be a few puffins in that area, a small colony, but we didn't expect to see them, and indeed we did not. We did, however, see the giant statue of a pair of puffins that has been put up to mark their presence!
We had caught a 10:30 bus and started walking at 11:30, and at about 1:30 we arrived in the town of Grève de Lecq, which greeted us with perfectly salubrious public toilets, and a beautiful curving stretch of sand beach, and a very nice beachside cafe with outdoor seating. As I said to Geoff, that's my kind of hiking: rugged terrain, gorgeous views, crashing ocean waves, and a pub every two hours! We split a pint of Liberation ale (unfortunately no longer actually brewed on Jersey) and a piping hot plate of chips with a sort of chili mayo dip, and Geoff also bought me a bottle of water, because I hate the taste of the tap water at our guesthouse and had meant to bring an empty water bottle to fill along the way but forgot. (Look, I was managing all the logistics of getting us to the start of the hike, and keeping us on the right trail, and keeping an eye on the bus times to get us home again from various possible bailout points, and I did remember to bring the bag of trail mix. I dropped one stitch. And then I had a bottle of tasty water anyway!)
We headed out again at two, but fortunately only got about five minutes down the road before Geoff realized he'd left his camera on the table! So I waited while he went back for it; the waitress had kindly set it aside when she saw it had been forgotten. So Geoff ended up walking a bit further than me today, and accordingly has slightly greater bragging rights 😀
Anyway, from there we continued on the same kind of cliffside trail (and occasionally road), except that we made a small detour around a recreational shooting range that was flying the red flags that meant, according to all the signs, ACTIVE SHOOTING IN PROGRESS, DO NOT ENTER. We did not enter! We did see a couple of guys with bows as we skirted the edge of the restricted area, and a little further on we heard a fair amount of gunfire.
Right at the point where we detoured, we also stopped to look at some odd-looking sheep grazing in a field beside the road. Another couple of hikers were already there, looking at the sheep and chatting with the shepherd, a young man who was happy to tell us that they were an unusual breed called Manx Loaghtan (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manx_Loaghtan); he said, and we could see, that they often had four horns, but Wikipedia says they sometimes have six! We definitely didn't see any six-horned ones. And a signpost next to the field he and they were in told us that the conical hill in the center of the field, on the edge of the cliff overlooking the ocean, was an ancient hill fort, which had been fortified in various ways by multiple succeeding cultures and forces. So much history, just lying around everywhere!
We walked past many many potato fields, and startled several grouse out of the gorse as we walked by, and saw a tractor moving through a field and followed by a flock of hopeful gulls (or similar), and encountered a fair number of other walkers, either coming the other way or overtaking us. We don't generally overtake others, except for one older couple whom we leapfrogged a few times as we and they alternately stopped to rest, snack, or don or doff layers. Strange to think that we also qualify as an older couple now!
We made it to our ultimate goal, the evocatively named Devil's Hole, a deep crater and blowhole in the oceanside cliff, at about 3:15. Except that we weren't actually there yet; we had arrived at the Devil's Hole bus stop, from which we could get home, but the Devil's Hole itself was a ten-minute walk further on, steeply down through woods as we approached the edge of the water. Climbing back up was not fun ("ten minutes there, fifteen minutes back"), but the Devil's Hole itself was worth it: a wide and dramatically deep and dangerous hole in the rock, and fascinating to stare down into. A signboard warned onlookers that the ground beyond the constructed path and viewing platform was crumbly and unstable, adding, almost but not quite in these words, "Jersey Fire and Rescue rescues twenty or thirty people a year who try to climb down there and can't get back up, don't be a dumbass!" It was indeed sooooo tempting to hop the fence just to get a better look down the throat of the crater, but we generally try not to be dumbasses, so we did not. Sadly it was low tide, so the seawater was not crashing in the crater, but we could see it ominously slapping around at the bottom, as the waves washed the outer side of the rock.
There was also a big statue of the devil beside the path down, mostly cheesy but fun to see.
We slogged back up the path to the parking lot where the bus would stop, had about twenty minutes to sit and rest, and then the bus arrived that would take us back home! Excellent timing. Well, first it took us five or six stops further out, to the end of its route, and then it turned around and took us home.
You could not pay me to drive on these roads. The roadway was often barely six inches wider than the bus, and yet was a two-way road; several times either the bus or the oncoming vehicle had to brake hard, back up, and pull into some invisible but marginally wider spot -- or just into someone's driveway -- so that we could squeeze past each other. Truck drivers and oncoming buses often flipped their rear-view mirrors in to make more room. In the more rural northern part of the route, the bus driver often honked several times as he approached blind curves. If there was a bicyclist in the road, there would often be a line of several cars creeping along behind them, since it was rarely possible to get around them (and you couldn't pay me to bike these roads either). As an admiring and occasionally freaked out passenger, though, bus rides like that are pretty cool! Also, the bus we took home was a newer one, and it actually announced every upcoming stop both aloud and on an electronic screen, which was remarkably civilized compared to the way I'd had to carefully track our progress on previous bus rides so as to know where we were and when we should get off. It wasn't actually helpful, though, since we were going to the end of the line, the big main bus station in the center of town, so we didn't need help identifying it. But it's good to know that some buses, at least, have that system!
Rather than get home and then drag ourselves out again for dinner, on our way home from the bus station we stopped at a likely-looking pub that had outdoor seating and split a big order of fish and chips; a "coronation chicken tart" that turned out to be curried chicken salad on top of a flaky pastry, garnished with salad greens; and another pint of Liberation Ale. Then back to the room for collapsing, showering, and blogging. And here we are!
Last week's media, a bit belatedly
11 May 2026 03:29 pmumadoshiReading: I had a pretty good reading week--I read both Role Model and The Long Game, so I'm caught up on the Game Changers books until whenever the new one comes out, and read Platform Decay once my hard copy finally arrived on Friday night. (Tracking info put it in the city by last Sunday and it got delivered around 8 PM on Friday. WTF.)
I also read The World Central Kitchen Cookbook: Feeding Humanity, Feeding Hope.
And tomorrow All Hail Chaos (Sarah Rees Brennan, sequel to Long Live Evil) comes out! So that'll be my next read. (I'm going to get it in hard copy and also in ebook, and doing so will only cost a few dollars more than buying Platform Decay did in hard copy alone. Fucking book pricing.)
I also need to browse my manga collection and decide what to read next from it.
Watching: A few more episodes of Justice in the Dark, and we also watched ep. 1 of Witch Hat Atelier. (I read a volume or two of the manga quite a while ago, and remember essentially nothing about it.)
I also read The World Central Kitchen Cookbook: Feeding Humanity, Feeding Hope.
And tomorrow All Hail Chaos (Sarah Rees Brennan, sequel to Long Live Evil) comes out! So that'll be my next read. (I'm going to get it in hard copy and also in ebook, and doing so will only cost a few dollars more than buying Platform Decay did in hard copy alone. Fucking book pricing.)
I also need to browse my manga collection and decide what to read next from it.
Watching: A few more episodes of Justice in the Dark, and we also watched ep. 1 of Witch Hat Atelier. (I read a volume or two of the manga quite a while ago, and remember essentially nothing about it.)
fanvid recs - due South
11 May 2026 07:08 amaurumcalendulaSome more recs! For due South this time:
Istanbul (Not Constantinople) byalasen (2003)
Pavlov's Bell bybutterfly (2005 & 2006)
Out Here and In The Mirror byheresluck (2006 & 2007)
Northwest Passage byyunista (2007)
Dear Fellow Traveller byabsinthe_spoons (2015)
All the Way Home bytrelkez (2016)
(ETA: Now with the correct links)
Istanbul (Not Constantinople) by
alasen (2003) Pavlov's Bell by
butterfly (2005 & 2006) Out Here and In The Mirror by
heresluck (2006 & 2007) Northwest Passage by
yunista (2007) Dear Fellow Traveller by
absinthe_spoons (2015)All the Way Home by
trelkez (2016)(ETA: Now with the correct links)
Fic Rec: Farther Adventures of Robot and Human
10 May 2026 08:12 pmbeatrice_otterFor ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
highadrenalineexchange I got this absolutely delightful Fandom for Robots fic that was everything I wanted! Go read it.
Farther Adventures of Robot and Human (10233 words) by BardicRaven
Chapters: 6/6
Fandom: Fandom For Robots - Vina Jie-Min Prasad
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: bjornruffian & Computron (Fandom for Robots), Computron & Hexode (Fandom for Robots)
Characters: bjornruffian (Fandom For Robots), Computron (Fandom for Robots), Hexode (Fandom For Robots)
Additional Tags: Canonical Character Death, Canonical Abuse, Friendship, Robots, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Post-Canon
Summary:
highadrenalineexchange I got this absolutely delightful Fandom for Robots fic that was everything I wanted! Go read it.Farther Adventures of Robot and Human (10233 words) by BardicRaven
Chapters: 6/6
Fandom: Fandom For Robots - Vina Jie-Min Prasad
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: bjornruffian & Computron (Fandom for Robots), Computron & Hexode (Fandom for Robots)
Characters: bjornruffian (Fandom For Robots), Computron (Fandom for Robots), Hexode (Fandom For Robots)
Additional Tags: Canonical Character Death, Canonical Abuse, Friendship, Robots, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Post-Canon
Summary:
Computron is well aware that he exists on sufferance.
Fic: The Obloquy of Newness
10 May 2026 06:03 pmbeatrice_otterhighadrenalineexchange has revealed authors, and I can reveal what I wrote! I had a lot of fun with a Vedero-focused Goblin Emperor fic.Title: The Obloquy of Newness
Author: Beatrice_otter
Fandom: Goblin Emperor
Characters: Vedero Drazhin
Written for: DontStopHerNow in High Adrenaline 2026
Summary: Vedero would like nothing more than to study the stars. If only court politics and gossip did not get in her way ...
Author's Note: Betaed by Irina. Title from The Old Astronomer by Sarah Williams.
On AO3. On Squidgeworld. On Dreamwidth. On tumblr. On Pillowfort.
Vedero could barely see her hands as they worked.
That was alright; they knew their business. They did not need to see more than the ghostly outlines of the white tubs in the sink to fish around in the sodium sulfite solution with rubber-coated tongs and grab the edge of the paper and hold it up so that some of the fluid would drip off, before settling it gently in the tub of acetic acid that would stop the silver halide crystals from continuing to develop. She counted the seconds, and then moved the paper to the sodium thiosulfate that would wash away the excess silver from the paper, so that when she took the images out into the light, they would not be re-exposed.
( On the whole, it was a very meditative process. )
(no subject)
11 May 2026 11:45 amchina_shopOne week after our epic drive to charge my car battery, it's flat again, even with the trickle charger installed. I got up early to take it down to the mechanic for its Warrant of Fitness, and nope. (So they came and collected it.)
Update: Apparently a new battery will hold its charge better, so. That. Plus they're going to replace the broken latch on the boot (AKA trunk), which will mean I'll actually be able to access it for things like groceries. Luxury! (Assuming I ever drive again, who even knows at this point.) Anyway.
At this stage it feels like my car is higher maintenance than anything else in my life except for my body. ;-p
Update: Apparently a new battery will hold its charge better, so. That. Plus they're going to replace the broken latch on the boot (AKA trunk), which will mean I'll actually be able to access it for things like groceries. Luxury! (Assuming I ever drive again, who even knows at this point.) Anyway.
At this stage it feels like my car is higher maintenance than anything else in my life except for my body. ;-p
Bare-minimum weekly proof of life
10 May 2026 07:40 pmumadoshiThis is not a media-intake post, because my list of last week's media is upstairs on my computer and I'm on the sofa finally trying out the very small folding bluetooth keyboard I bought ages ago to maybe make typing on my phone a bit easier.
But hey, I live.
But hey, I live.
surfacing, sort of
10 May 2026 03:23 pmjazzfishDropped the condo price and had another open house yesterday. Two people came by. It only takes one but I am not at all optimistic.
At this point I don't know what to do.
( oof )
We've had a lot of good lap time this past week. Well, "lap." Mr Tuppert does not Do laps. He'll flop over my ankle or curl up next to my shin, though, and will ask for scritches before catnapping. He missed me while I was gone. It's mutual.
Currently reading Murderbot, specifically Network Effect and System Collapse. A new one is out last week or this, and I preordered it as a last hurrah before I left. Still haven't gotten into Cameron Reed's new book. Maybe next.
This week: start looking for A Job Any Job; look into rental prospects; compact the stuff in the storage unit. Continue looking for A Real Job, continue practising and going to sessions, pet cat, feed self.
None of it was supposed to be like this.
Oh well.
"The release of all thought of an alternative to the present moment."
(I am not currently a danger to myself or others.)
At this point I don't know what to do.
( oof )
We've had a lot of good lap time this past week. Well, "lap." Mr Tuppert does not Do laps. He'll flop over my ankle or curl up next to my shin, though, and will ask for scritches before catnapping. He missed me while I was gone. It's mutual.
Currently reading Murderbot, specifically Network Effect and System Collapse. A new one is out last week or this, and I preordered it as a last hurrah before I left. Still haven't gotten into Cameron Reed's new book. Maybe next.
This week: start looking for A Job Any Job; look into rental prospects; compact the stuff in the storage unit. Continue looking for A Real Job, continue practising and going to sessions, pet cat, feed self.
None of it was supposed to be like this.
Oh well.
"The release of all thought of an alternative to the present moment."
(I am not currently a danger to myself or others.)
Write Every Day: Day 10
10 May 2026 02:50 pmsanguinityIntro/FAQ
My check-in: Put the auction story on a back burner for now, because I probably need a long convo hammering it through with someone before I can go farther. Instead got down a couple of sentences of a drabble for my other auction recipient. (She says I can use multiple works toward her fill. I am not, however, planning on making the all drabbles, because there will need to be seventy of them…)
Day 10:sanguinity
Day 9:badly_knitted, china_shop, cornerofmadness, dswdiane, goddess47, sanguinity, the_siobhan, trobadora
Day 8:acorn_squash, badly_knitted, china_shop, cornerofmadness, dswdiane, goddess47, sanguinity, sylvanwitch, the_siobhan, trobadora
( More days )
When you check in, please use the most recent post and say what day(s) you’re checking in for. Remember you can drop in or out at any time, and let me know if I missed anyone!
My check-in: Put the auction story on a back burner for now, because I probably need a long convo hammering it through with someone before I can go farther. Instead got down a couple of sentences of a drabble for my other auction recipient. (She says I can use multiple works toward her fill. I am not, however, planning on making the all drabbles, because there will need to be seventy of them…)
Day 10:
sanguinityDay 9:
badly_knitted, china_shop, cornerofmadness, dswdiane, goddess47, sanguinity, the_siobhan, trobadoraDay 8:
acorn_squash, badly_knitted, china_shop, cornerofmadness, dswdiane, goddess47, sanguinity, sylvanwitch, the_siobhan, trobadora( More days )
When you check in, please use the most recent post and say what day(s) you’re checking in for. Remember you can drop in or out at any time, and let me know if I missed anyone!
Still Here
10 May 2026 10:04 pmrodoSo, I’m feeling a bit better, but it appears all that stress led to me regulating my emotions so much that I kind of crashed when everything was done and dusted and my brain chemistry just went… weird. I had anxiety like I haven’t had since my teens, and felt kind of like I didn’t really feel anything much because I clamped down on everything, and now it’s slowly coming back in unexpected ways. Hope it’ll get better in summer, once my mother’s cataract surgeries are behind us.
As for work: I now appear to be the person in charge of infrastructure related stuff on the developer side, which is so not my cup of tea, but since I’m the one who has the time to try to figure things out, I’m the one doing it. I hate it, but someone has to do it, and I guess it’ll end up being useful someday.
I’ve got a small holiday between Ascension Day and Pentecost (to maximize my free time per holidays taken). If nothing goes terribly wrong with the first of my mother’s surgeries tomorrow, I’ll visit an old friend I haven’t seen in nearly three(!) years next weekend, so fingers crossed.
In other real life news: I did my taxes for the first time, and it was nerve-racking, but also exciting because I finally get to adult at 40+. It wasn’t mandatory for me, but my mother suggested I do it, and it was kind of exciting to be able to to it anyway, so I did it. I got my preliminary result in the mail yesterday, and it seems my mother had a point.
And last but not least: I started writing my last Fandom 5K story ever. I’m going to miss this exchange so much, since it’s pretty much the only one of its kind that I know of. I’m not confident enough for a 10k minimum yet, and I need a longer writing period and a general theme, so it’s my favorite after Yuletide.
... and now my cat came in to remind me that it's time for bed. Good night, y'all!
As for work: I now appear to be the person in charge of infrastructure related stuff on the developer side, which is so not my cup of tea, but since I’m the one who has the time to try to figure things out, I’m the one doing it. I hate it, but someone has to do it, and I guess it’ll end up being useful someday.
I’ve got a small holiday between Ascension Day and Pentecost (to maximize my free time per holidays taken). If nothing goes terribly wrong with the first of my mother’s surgeries tomorrow, I’ll visit an old friend I haven’t seen in nearly three(!) years next weekend, so fingers crossed.
In other real life news: I did my taxes for the first time, and it was nerve-racking, but also exciting because I finally get to adult at 40+. It wasn’t mandatory for me, but my mother suggested I do it, and it was kind of exciting to be able to to it anyway, so I did it. I got my preliminary result in the mail yesterday, and it seems my mother had a point.
And last but not least: I started writing my last Fandom 5K story ever. I’m going to miss this exchange so much, since it’s pretty much the only one of its kind that I know of. I’m not confident enough for a 10k minimum yet, and I need a longer writing period and a general theme, so it’s my favorite after Yuletide.
... and now my cat came in to remind me that it's time for bed. Good night, y'all!
A day with @trepkos!
10 May 2026 04:44 pmthe_shoshannaNothing beats meeting a friend for the first time
trepkos and I friended each other on LJ waaaaay back in the day, because we had friends in common and I thought she seemed cool and I guess she thought the same of me, and there it might have rested if Geoff and I hadn't come to her island!We started the day with another huge breakfast and enthusiastic conversation from our host Elena; this time she made us veggie omelets and I fended off the beans and still couldn't finish everything. Then we hopped a bus to
trepkos's place -- we caught a slightly earlier bus than I'd allowed for, so when we got off at her stop we had enough time to wander around the little oceanfront park and out along a slipway and a natural sprit of land that would have been under water at high tide but was lovely to pick our way along now that it was exposed. Then we came back to shore and walked up the road to her place, and had a nice chat (and tea) with her and her partner, and then we got in her car and she drove us to see wonderful things.We started with a stroll out an enormously long breakwater on the northeast coast, just to admire the ocean and the way it was so much choppier and violent on the seaward side than the inner side, which is of course exactly what a breakwater is for, but it's pretty cool to look along its length and see both sides at once. There were several people on their way to swim, even. We could just see France on the horizon. And it was ferociously windy; at one point trepkos picked up a tangle of seaweed that had been flung up on the walkway atop the breakwater and tried to drop it over the side back into the sea on the seaward side, where we were walking, and the wind immediately snatched it up and whipped it over our heads to dump it in on the sheltered side instead.
There was a plaque mounted on the breakwater commemorating a fifteen-year-old girl who, starting and ending there, swam all the way around the island. The mind boggles, but apparently this is a thing that people do regularly!
Then we went on a beautiful walk through a wooded valley of conservation land with a stream running through it, just chatting the whole way about fandom and life and I don't know what-all. I had wondered if ticks were a danger here, which question was answered by a signpost warning of the danger of tick-borne disease, and also by the dog we met that had a tick on its forehead, which its owner flicked off when Geoff pointed it out, shudder. But I don't get the sense that they're the constant glaring danger that they are in some places I've been back home.
*pause to tick-check my lower extremities*
At the far end of the conservation area we looped around briefly on roads before re-entering it to retrace our steps, and we passed someone's "fresh eggs for sale" shed at the end of their driveway, with an honor box for money and also a "smile, you're on CCTV" note posted. However, there were no eggs there to be admired; I mean, I wasn't going to buy any, but I would have enjoyed admiring them. We did see a pheasant and several chicks crossing the road, though!
From there we went to the Faldouet dolmen, a Neolithic tomb and ceremonial site; we didn't stay long but such places are always atmospheric and make me think about the length of human history and culture. This one is six thousand years old.
We also went to La Hougue Bie, another Neolithic passage grave, where history is literally layered on layers. We crept into the Neolithic passage under the hill, and walked through a reproduction Neolithic longhouse; and went through the museum exhibit about the enormous Celtic hoard of coins and jewelry that was found in an undisclosed location nearby, dating from around 50 CE; and went through the underground bunker that the Germans built into the hill, which now houses exhibits and photographs commemorating the enslaved workers whom the Nazis brought to Jersey from all over Europe to build their fortifications. (We forgot, however, to visit the sixteenth-century chapel on the top of the hill.)
We finished up in the on-site cafe, which offered cakes and eclairs of a size that I remarked would make an American blush; Geoff and I shared a latte and all three of us got bowls of really excellent tomato-basil soup with fresh rolls, crusty on the outside and wonderfully soft on the inside. It was so much that Geoff and I have decided to skip dinner -- though I might have a handful or two of our trail mix, which I also greatly enjoy!
Trepkos gave us a ride back to our guesthouse, where we are now tucked up blogging. Tomorrow we plan to hike along the northwest coast, which is supposed to be be both gorgeous and quite challenging. We'll start by taking a bus to Grosnez Castle, at the northwest corner of the island, and walking east from there; there's a bus we can take home after what might be a hike of an hour or two, and another one at what might be anywhere from another one to four hours; I'm finding it really hard to get clear information! We'll see how we get on.
salt over my skin.
10 May 2026 02:23 pmgoodbyebird+ 🗣️ New Aldous Harding album. I repeat: new Aldous Harding album.
+ Retreated to my bedroom for a quiet space to finally get a post out. Brough my holiday incense leftovers and now everything smells amazing. There's just nothing else that smells this good to me.
+ Finally did one voluntary social call since coming home. Met my good friend K, the one I didn't get around to last free trip. It's always such a lovely time. Miracles of miracles, it was actually sunny and warm that day. (we've had two full days with white on the ground. This morning greeted me with a hail storm. ~MAY~)
We may be meeting up next week so I can finally see her new house. There's a bunch of springy lambs visible from her window!
+ Friend J got a new Guinea pig and is sending me all sorts of cute pictures and videos 🥰
+ Redid the pin badge banner on my bedroom door, for more springy vibes. ( Wish I had more floral pins, but I feel nicely covered when it comes to work and life vibes. )
+ The online store with the biggest selection of tarot decks and books announced they were shutting down, so whups there goes another shopping spree. I really did want to put a whole lot more time into my new decks first, but that's how it goes. I'll finally have my hands on the supremely queer and joyful Supernova Tarot though!! Absolute delight in a box, cannot wait.As well as Kate Forsyth's Plant Oracle. I'm just really craving florals and animals lately. But mostly it was new books, including a year long work book. So that'll be interesting to tackle. Structure would do me good.
+ I've officially sent in my resignation at work. Wish I could roll around in relief, but of course all I'm feeling is overwhelmed and stressed about having to find something new. Still better than the toxic soup I was drowning in.
Turned to my tarot for a small soothing work reading.
Ah yes, 8 of Swords, my second in line stalker card. Confronting inner barriers, awareness of self-limiting beliefs, a shift of perspective for potential liberation. And Death, the end of one phase and the beginning of another. Embracing inevitable changes. As the foundation I pulled The Hierophant: spiritual wisdom, tradition, embodying guidance and mentorship.
The next couple of days I did three one card pulls, and well, let's just say [it's the same picture dot jpeg].
small
a seed already has the energy to begin
and then takes time in the dark underground,
supported and nourished by the soil, the matrix.
to have a foundation, to root.
•
Peppermint can dispel the mental chatter that prevents us from being present. They can allow our minds to be cool and clear. Peppermint offers perspective on how we see ourselves and how we engage with the world, showing us a way through the many layers of selves around which we build stories.
Peppermint is an excellent ally for transition.
•
No amount of clarity or visualization is possible without distancing oneself from the noise of the world. It can be challenging to take ourselves out of the flood of distractions we deal with minute by minute.
Seek out a place of stillness to hear what you need; time to meditate.
All in all a clear message. To honor it, after I'm done here I'll be brewing myself a cup of peppermint tea and tidying a bit, followed by a bath using a small Aromatgerapy Associates bottle I know contains peppermint. Then hop in bed with the window open to feel the breeze and do a body scan meditation (extremely likely to be followed by a nap heh). Bonus, this matches up perfectly with the exercise for my current Embodied Ecosystems Tarot task.
+ Now, you'd think I was done playing with my cards? lol nope. I just recently received The Intuitive Goddess Tarot, and decided to do their seven card chakra spread. ( Sparing you all my card blather. )
+ We're still open for offerings and requests at 3W4DW Tarot Reading, for anybody who's been thinking about joining in.
+ If you've ever wanted to give paid time a try on Dreamwidth, or would just like to top up your account, please do put your name in the hat. Multiple donors have signed on, we'd just like you to get something nice while supporting Dreamwidth ❤️
+ Tonight I'll play some more with the Star Wars Icon Pass It On. Stop by and drop some images for us to play with and make some shiny icons ✨
+ Retreated to my bedroom for a quiet space to finally get a post out. Brough my holiday incense leftovers and now everything smells amazing. There's just nothing else that smells this good to me.
+ Finally did one voluntary social call since coming home. Met my good friend K, the one I didn't get around to last free trip. It's always such a lovely time. Miracles of miracles, it was actually sunny and warm that day. (we've had two full days with white on the ground. This morning greeted me with a hail storm. ~MAY~)
We may be meeting up next week so I can finally see her new house. There's a bunch of springy lambs visible from her window!
+ Friend J got a new Guinea pig and is sending me all sorts of cute pictures and videos 🥰
+ Redid the pin badge banner on my bedroom door, for more springy vibes. ( Wish I had more floral pins, but I feel nicely covered when it comes to work and life vibes. )
+ The online store with the biggest selection of tarot decks and books announced they were shutting down, so whups there goes another shopping spree. I really did want to put a whole lot more time into my new decks first, but that's how it goes. I'll finally have my hands on the supremely queer and joyful Supernova Tarot though!! Absolute delight in a box, cannot wait.As well as Kate Forsyth's Plant Oracle. I'm just really craving florals and animals lately. But mostly it was new books, including a year long work book. So that'll be interesting to tackle. Structure would do me good.
+ I've officially sent in my resignation at work. Wish I could roll around in relief, but of course all I'm feeling is overwhelmed and stressed about having to find something new. Still better than the toxic soup I was drowning in.
Turned to my tarot for a small soothing work reading.
Ah yes, 8 of Swords, my second in line stalker card. Confronting inner barriers, awareness of self-limiting beliefs, a shift of perspective for potential liberation. And Death, the end of one phase and the beginning of another. Embracing inevitable changes. As the foundation I pulled The Hierophant: spiritual wisdom, tradition, embodying guidance and mentorship.
The next couple of days I did three one card pulls, and well, let's just say [it's the same picture dot jpeg].
small
a seed already has the energy to begin
and then takes time in the dark underground,
supported and nourished by the soil, the matrix.
to have a foundation, to root.
•
Peppermint can dispel the mental chatter that prevents us from being present. They can allow our minds to be cool and clear. Peppermint offers perspective on how we see ourselves and how we engage with the world, showing us a way through the many layers of selves around which we build stories.
Peppermint is an excellent ally for transition.
•
No amount of clarity or visualization is possible without distancing oneself from the noise of the world. It can be challenging to take ourselves out of the flood of distractions we deal with minute by minute.
Seek out a place of stillness to hear what you need; time to meditate.
All in all a clear message. To honor it, after I'm done here I'll be brewing myself a cup of peppermint tea and tidying a bit, followed by a bath using a small Aromatgerapy Associates bottle I know contains peppermint. Then hop in bed with the window open to feel the breeze and do a body scan meditation (extremely likely to be followed by a nap heh). Bonus, this matches up perfectly with the exercise for my current Embodied Ecosystems Tarot task.
+ Now, you'd think I was done playing with my cards? lol nope. I just recently received The Intuitive Goddess Tarot, and decided to do their seven card chakra spread. ( Sparing you all my card blather. )
+ We're still open for offerings and requests at 3W4DW Tarot Reading, for anybody who's been thinking about joining in.
+ If you've ever wanted to give paid time a try on Dreamwidth, or would just like to top up your account, please do put your name in the hat. Multiple donors have signed on, we'd just like you to get something nice while supporting Dreamwidth ❤️
+ Tonight I'll play some more with the Star Wars Icon Pass It On. Stop by and drop some images for us to play with and make some shiny icons ✨
Decluttering the habitat
10 May 2026 01:37 pmdolorosa_12This has been an extremely efficient weekend, on various domestic fronts.
When Matthias's father was visiting a couple of weeks ago, he brought multiple large boxes of Matthias's old stuff — books in English and German, magazines, school exercise books, DVDs, VHS cassettes and CDs — the sort of childhood ephemera that gathers and lingers in the parental home if one is an immigrant who has lived one's entire adult life outside the country of origin. I remember boxing all this stuff up about a decade ago and storing it in the box room at Matthias's parents' place, and there it's remained, even though the house is now owned by Matthias's sister, who lives there with her husband and their three kids. The last boxes of my own equivalent stuff arrived by mail two years ago — mainly my childhood and teenage books — so it was high time to deal with Matthias's belongings.
He's already been through the English-language books, shelved the stuff he wanted to keep, and weeded out the stuff to go (including duplicates of books I already owned). We put the unwanted books out on the street, and people have already taken most of them. Every time I've put books out on the street, everything goes eventually, and I'm pretty certain that will happen in this case as well.
(On top of that, we're transitioning in Ely in June to a new rubbish/recycling regime which means we no longer need the big black bin bags for non-recyclable rubbish. We hardly ever have rubbish to collect, so we tend to accumulate far more of these bags than we could ever possibly need. We periodically put rolls of the bags out in the street for others to take, and on Friday I put out the last handful, along with some clean, unwanted sturdy paper shopping bags — and they all went as well.)
We're a bit hampered with rubbish by the fact that we don't drive or have a car, so I was slightly concerned about all the VHS cassettes (which Matthias didn't want to keep), but we figured out that the recycling centre in Witchford would take them, and that this was an easy half-hour walk through public byways in the fields, so this morning, after breakfast, we each filled a backpack with VHS cassettes, plus some batteries that we also couldn't get rid of anywhere else, and walked them over to the tip. As we were on foot, we didn't have to wait our turn in the huge, backed-up queue of cars waiting for a slot, and were in and out, and back home within a hour of leaving.
We cleared out the big living room cupboard (where I'd shoved a bunch of appliance boxes when we moved in and never looked at them again), and moved them up into the loft. And now I can see Matthias going through the boxes of old newspapers and magazines, so those will be dealt with by the end of the weekend too.
In the garden, we constructed a covered archway over one of the vegetable beds to protect the seeds and seedlings, as we have enormous problems with blackbirds — as soon as we plant anything, they come and dig it up and eat it, and hurl mulch all over the footpath, and I'm sick of it! I also planted out some cucumber, parsley, dill and chard seedlings, planted amaranth, sunflowers and radishes, and scattered a few more packets of wildflower seeds around. After I've finished this post, I'm going to tie the self-seeded sweetpea plants to stakes, and that will be the garden tasks done for now. We're doing well when it comes to herbs and salad greens — and indeed ate home-grown mixed greens and chives in a salad for lunch today.
There's also been a lot of cooking, pickling and fermenting going on: stewed apples with cinnamon, plus cooked strawberries, to go with our breakfasts next week, sauerkraut (with cabbage, cucumber and fennel, plus caraway seeds), a jar of homemade pickles, and another jar of shatta (fermented chili condiment).
That's plus two hours of classes in the gym yesterday, and 1km swimmming on Friday and again this morning, and some decent, lengthy yoga classes at home.
I'd say all that feels pretty decent, and the decluttering in particular is extremely satisfying. I'm really glad we got all that done so efficiently (although in some ways it would have been better to have discarded all the stuff we gave away/recycled/threw away ten years ago in Germany, but given I behaved in a similar way with my own belongings in Australia, I find the extended hanging on to stuff that eventually just gets binned entirely understandable).
As a consequence, I have not had much time for reading or other media, although I did watch Send Help (a comedic thriller in which an overworked and underappreciated corporate office worker ends up stranded on a tropical island with her childish and unappreciative boss, where her hitherto unrecognised side hobby of outdoor survival in extreme landscapes of course comes in incredibly handy, with predictable results) last night. Hopefully next weekend will have a bit more time for proper relaxing, but I'm happy to have been able to devote so much of this weekend to getting all this stuff done so efficiently.
When Matthias's father was visiting a couple of weeks ago, he brought multiple large boxes of Matthias's old stuff — books in English and German, magazines, school exercise books, DVDs, VHS cassettes and CDs — the sort of childhood ephemera that gathers and lingers in the parental home if one is an immigrant who has lived one's entire adult life outside the country of origin. I remember boxing all this stuff up about a decade ago and storing it in the box room at Matthias's parents' place, and there it's remained, even though the house is now owned by Matthias's sister, who lives there with her husband and their three kids. The last boxes of my own equivalent stuff arrived by mail two years ago — mainly my childhood and teenage books — so it was high time to deal with Matthias's belongings.
He's already been through the English-language books, shelved the stuff he wanted to keep, and weeded out the stuff to go (including duplicates of books I already owned). We put the unwanted books out on the street, and people have already taken most of them. Every time I've put books out on the street, everything goes eventually, and I'm pretty certain that will happen in this case as well.
(On top of that, we're transitioning in Ely in June to a new rubbish/recycling regime which means we no longer need the big black bin bags for non-recyclable rubbish. We hardly ever have rubbish to collect, so we tend to accumulate far more of these bags than we could ever possibly need. We periodically put rolls of the bags out in the street for others to take, and on Friday I put out the last handful, along with some clean, unwanted sturdy paper shopping bags — and they all went as well.)
We're a bit hampered with rubbish by the fact that we don't drive or have a car, so I was slightly concerned about all the VHS cassettes (which Matthias didn't want to keep), but we figured out that the recycling centre in Witchford would take them, and that this was an easy half-hour walk through public byways in the fields, so this morning, after breakfast, we each filled a backpack with VHS cassettes, plus some batteries that we also couldn't get rid of anywhere else, and walked them over to the tip. As we were on foot, we didn't have to wait our turn in the huge, backed-up queue of cars waiting for a slot, and were in and out, and back home within a hour of leaving.
We cleared out the big living room cupboard (where I'd shoved a bunch of appliance boxes when we moved in and never looked at them again), and moved them up into the loft. And now I can see Matthias going through the boxes of old newspapers and magazines, so those will be dealt with by the end of the weekend too.
In the garden, we constructed a covered archway over one of the vegetable beds to protect the seeds and seedlings, as we have enormous problems with blackbirds — as soon as we plant anything, they come and dig it up and eat it, and hurl mulch all over the footpath, and I'm sick of it! I also planted out some cucumber, parsley, dill and chard seedlings, planted amaranth, sunflowers and radishes, and scattered a few more packets of wildflower seeds around. After I've finished this post, I'm going to tie the self-seeded sweetpea plants to stakes, and that will be the garden tasks done for now. We're doing well when it comes to herbs and salad greens — and indeed ate home-grown mixed greens and chives in a salad for lunch today.
There's also been a lot of cooking, pickling and fermenting going on: stewed apples with cinnamon, plus cooked strawberries, to go with our breakfasts next week, sauerkraut (with cabbage, cucumber and fennel, plus caraway seeds), a jar of homemade pickles, and another jar of shatta (fermented chili condiment).
That's plus two hours of classes in the gym yesterday, and 1km swimmming on Friday and again this morning, and some decent, lengthy yoga classes at home.
I'd say all that feels pretty decent, and the decluttering in particular is extremely satisfying. I'm really glad we got all that done so efficiently (although in some ways it would have been better to have discarded all the stuff we gave away/recycled/threw away ten years ago in Germany, but given I behaved in a similar way with my own belongings in Australia, I find the extended hanging on to stuff that eventually just gets binned entirely understandable).
As a consequence, I have not had much time for reading or other media, although I did watch Send Help (a comedic thriller in which an overworked and underappreciated corporate office worker ends up stranded on a tropical island with her childish and unappreciative boss, where her hitherto unrecognised side hobby of outdoor survival in extreme landscapes of course comes in incredibly handy, with predictable results) last night. Hopefully next weekend will have a bit more time for proper relaxing, but I'm happy to have been able to devote so much of this weekend to getting all this stuff done so efficiently.
For all Mankind 5.08 and The Testaments 1.07
10 May 2026 01:27 pmselenakMeanwhile in tv land.
For All Mankind 5.08:
( Spoilers do not want to bounce back from Saturn… )
The Testaments 1.07:
( Spoilers are not supposed to be a spy but a sponge… )
For All Mankind 5.08:
( Spoilers do not want to bounce back from Saturn… )
The Testaments 1.07:
( Spoilers are not supposed to be a spy but a sponge… )
