apparentopposite

On Saturday, I was at Pets at Home, helping out for Consett Cats again. This time I was manning the tombola, and final total raised was £81. Not as much as the week before, but considering the prizes were the usual, not exciting tombola fare, I was pleased with the total. The shop did warn Kay, the main rescue lady, that we had to be careful about people stopping to talk and blocking the aisle. Not just for our day, but the whole fortnight.

This is a year-long partnership, so we'll be back in the summer and before Christmas for two more fortnights of fundraising -- in between they have collection tins out for Consett Cats near the tills, and raise money that way -- and hopefully they'll rearrange, so the table can go in the foyer and not cause bottlenecks.

We ended up staying much longer than originally planned, but again, I got to stroke lots of cute dogs and talk to lots of people, so I enjoyed the day.

If anyone is interested, Kay was recently interviewed for the BBC news, talking about trapping a feral colony. She really is an amazing woman, running the rescue single-handed with the help of volunteers.

Sunday I spent hanging at Kayleigh's as my brother and nephew were going there to put up a shed. It's not often that us sibs can get together for nearly a full day, even if Chris was working for most of it. It was nice to just hang, though man, it was chilly, and in the end Kayleigh switched on the patio heater.

Monday we were supposed to take Bodhi to a Tinkerbell Easter party at Moo Bears, but it was cancelled as Tinkerbell ended up having to be admitted to hospital. Thankfully, Bodhi still doesn't really have any real concept of time, so didn't realise she was missing out. Plus, she had all her eggs to concentrate on, so was happy enough.

I was a bit annoyed at Moos, who only announced the cancellation in a few sentences within their normal daily FB post. If I hadn't read that, we would have turned up to no party. I think, considering the tickets were pre-paid, they should have messaged people individually.

As there was no party, we rearranged plans and did grocery shopping in the morning, dropped off Bodhi's easter basket, then went to Pauline's as she'd asked us to come for lunch. Stayed there for a couple of hours and then headed for Newcastle to drop off Corey's Easter eggs.

Yesterday was supposed to be a no plan day for me, but first thing I got a message from Kayleigh asking, what are your plans today? Which I always know means, something has come up, can you babysit for me? And yep, I was at Kayleigh's from 10 to nearly four as Bodes wasn't feeling well and Kayleigh and Lucy had tattoo appointments booked in. It was all good though, I got to play tea parties and got some sun in the garden, and had a bit of excitement when first, their youngest cat decided to carry in a giant, fat, furry bumblebee. Then a blackbird decided to stroll in the house to get a drink from the cat's waterbowl. That I didn't mind, the bee situation, trying to work out how to get a cat to drop a bee wasn't a good time.

glitteryv

Expectations had been HIGH ever since it was announced that Coldplay would perform in Seoul for 6 sold out shows. They had TWICE during the first show (and then dropped an annoucement of a collabo they're doing with them.)

PPL were like OJO to the max cuz it was a fact that Jin was gonna show up. After all, he'd released "The Astronaut", a pop rock "I'm going into the military, but I'll be back" song that featured Coldplay. AND, shortly before enlisting, he'd flown something like 40 hrs from SK to perform the song live at what ARMYs affectionately call ArJINtina back in 2022.

The reunion happened this past Saturday and everyone was floating on cloud nine...

NB: these two videos (though filmed in HD) are fancams. As such, there's a lot of v. happy screaming, plenty of flashing lights from the stage, etc. BigHit will most deffo release a couple of Bangtan Bombs abt these two performances at some point in the future. But this is what we've got right now, so that's what I'm sharing with y'all. :DDD

Watch on YouTube

glitteryv

So, since it's Friday, I thought "let me do a post of fun stuff ppl might want to check out over the weekend." all three videos feature Matteo Lane--a gay, Italian-American comedian. IHNI what his comedy is like, but I found him on YT when it suggested one video where he talked abt informacials. IDEK, hahah.

The shows discussed are things I either watched in real time OR am familiar enough to jabber abt for a bit.

MTV's True Life

Back in the day, one of the reasons young ppl were watching MTV was cuz of their unscripted series. This was a deocumentary-style show where each episode dealt with anything and everything you can think of. Substance abuse, homelessness, being queer, driving while Black, being a cheerleader, going to college, moving to another city, etc. The series started airing in 1998 so reality TV was a huge thing. In some ways (and despite the editing) this MTV version of reality TV felt, well, fairly real.

IIRC, I watched the first three or four seasons? It was cancelled in 2017, so there was that.

ANYWAY

One of the most INFAMOUS episodes was "I'm Getting Married". It centered around Charlie and Sabrina, an Italian-American couple from New York, and their nuptials.

Watching this was a trip cuz I remember my initial O___O when it first aired. Not only the wedding stuff, but also watching what Charlie and Sabrina's life was like, the fashion (!), the nostalgia was there in full force, LOL.

I gotta mention that Charlie had a temper and his relationship with Sabrina was...messed up in a lot of ways. Also, I have a throw in a mild content warning for discussions of what went on in Charlie's life after the show aired. Heartwrenching stuff.

Watch on YouTube

Undressed

This anthology series first aired in 1999 and got cancelled 3 yrs later. Every Monday, the show would follow a group of ppl (usually college-aged, sometimes slightly younger or older) and their romantic and/or sexual relationships (breaking up, getting together, etc). The plots had two, occasionally three, storylines focusing on a handful of the characters. By Thursday, the stories would end. And then a new set of ppl would come up in the following week and so on. The show had an v. adult vibe and would air at 11:30 p.m.

Due to the set-up, you HAD to tune in every night during a week you liked the stories or the characters. Because MTV would not only take their sweet time doing reruns of the anthology BUT ALSO, due to the premise, you wouldn't know IF they were gonna rerun the storylines you liked. It was fun most of the time, tho.

NOT THE BEST ACTING, BUT it was the show that introduced me to Katee Sackoff, so.. hey! Other notable folks who appeared include: Max Greenfield, Adam Brody, Jason Ritter, Brandon Routh, and PEDRO PASCAL.

As a matter of fact, Pedro is IN THE EPISODE Matteo is commenting abt.

One of the main reasons why I liked this show (at the time) and one of the v. few things that MTV did right was showing queer ppl alongside cishet folks without mocking the queers. Frex, the episode Matteo is revisiting is centered around an M/M couple. HOWEVER, culturally speaking, the way the show (and the rest of late 90s/earlyl 2000s media) were handled in a problematique way a lot of the time.

IT WAS ALL US QUEER FOLKS HAD TO WATCH AT THAT TIME THO! Like, on non-MTV networks, queer folks were either the joke OR presented under the "Very Special Episode" umbrella. So, in that sense, I could appreciate this show.

Anyhoodle, I deffo agree with Matteo's commentary here regarding the messiness of it all...

Watch on YouTube

NEXT

Speaking of MESSY...

This is a dating reality show that began airing a little bit after I stopped watching MTV? So 2005-ish and ran for 3 more years. I watched a few episodes while getting ready to go out, but it's not like any of them were super memorable.

This was RIDICULOUSNESS. The basic idea is that there are 5 or 6 daters who are trying to win over a single person. The longer any of the daters remains with the single, the more money they make. The last dater will get the option of keeping the money they've accumulated throughout the date OR go on a second date with the single person. That said, the single person will "NEXT" any dater they're not clicking with.

SHENANIGANS AND TOMFOOLERY EVERYWHERE! It's v., v. early 2000s. I deffo cackled a lot because I lived thru it.

Watch on YouTube

turps

The switch over from Sky to EE broadband went nicely. Though, it's good that we weren't relying on an alarm Friday morning, as the internet was switched off overnight. So, no Alexa alarm, no turning on the lights, no having Alexa give a morning briefing, even no tv until the internet was connected again. Which actually didn't take that long, really, most of the time was taken reconnecting the echo dots.

Sky tv won't go off until the end of the month, so we won't be connecting the EE tv until then. I figured we've paid for this month of Sky, we're going to use it.

That was Friday. Saturday we had such a lovely walk along the riverbank at Durham. The weather was glorious, and it felt so good to be outside without needing a cardigan or coat.

Sunday was the Consett Cat event and it went well. I was in charge of the table downstairs, selling name the bunny names and also taking donations. Then later another lady turned up with cat print bags and sweet cones to sell, so I was in charge of them, too.

People could also go upstairs to meet some of the cats up for adoption, so hopefully, some will have their new forever homes soon. Included upstairs were brother and sister rag doll siblings, Sapphire and Steel. They were gorgeous! So silky with the most beautiful eyes, but the owner of the rescue says they have one brain cell between them *g*

Sitting where I was in the entrance meant I also got to meet some amazing dogs, including so many puppies ready to give out doggy kisses. That was supposed to be it for my volunteering, but I said I could do this Saturday too. So more puppy kisses for me, hopefully.

Monday was class, we talked about gut health, which is actually very interesting. But exciting for me, I'm getting so much better on that three level step. Reminders of progress ftw.

Tuesday the security people came. As part of a bundled deal with EE we were given an alarm system including a video doorbell -- which is typical as we only bought a Ring system a few months ago -- anti-shock sensors on the windows and doors, an alarm on the doors and other stuff, all monitored 24/7. So, now I have to remember to disarm the alarm every time I go out and in.

Yesterday I found out that Bodhi's been accepted into the school her mams picked for her, which is excellent as it was never a given she'd get in as it's a small school, and they'd only picked one. Better still, it's very close to their house and walkable for me, considering it's inevitable I'll still be doing school pick-ups sometimes. But still, big girl school for Bodhi, she's growing so fast.

We also went to the cinema to see The Amateur, which was good stuff.

Today was a quick Bodhisit as Lucy finished work at 1 and Kayleigh started at 1, so they needed someone for less than an hour. Also, I took advantage of the Easter veg wars by stocking up on the 8p veggies.

Generally, I watched and enjoyed the new episodes of Doctor Who and The Last of Us, though in very different ways. And now I'm going to have a read of my flist and try to catch up a little.

turps

I got excellent mail. Thank you so much ♥

I went to see two films on Friday and Saturday. First was The Minecraft Movie on Fri, and I enjoyed it a lot. Apparently there's a trend of people standing to applaud and shouting out lines at certain points, but we had none of that at our showing, no doubt because it was an early Friday showing and also a school day. I'm sure loads of things would have gone over my head as I've never played Minecraft, but going was worth it for just seeing Jason Momoa hamming it up in his pink leather jacket, never mind everything else.

Saturday we saw Death of a Unicorn, and that was fine. ( cutting for spoilers )

The cinema was buzzing that day, I've never seen it so busy for a long time, or as messy, as popcorn was everywhere in the areas outside the theatre screens.

That day, we also made the decision to ditch Sky and have signed up with EE TV. It was a difficult decision as we've been with Sky for over 25 years, but the price kept going up and up, and when we phoned to see if we could get a deal they said a straight out, nope. So we've cancelled.

The EE modem and tv boxes are coming tomorrow, and the Sky broadband is being switched off Friday. So, hopefully the switch goes smoothly. If not, well if I disappear completely you know something has gone badly wrong.

Monday it was class, and we talked about good and bad fats, and Rosie said she's still looking into a second class, asking if people would be okay going in the evening. Personally, I'd prefer during the day, but I still said yes. But something interesting, a new lady started last week, but I only chatted to her properly on Monday, and she said she has lymphedema too. ( cut for medical stuff )

James was supposed to be at work today, and actually set off there as normal. But what we didn't know was that overnight there had been a multiple vehicle crash, including four police cars that had totally closed the main road to his work in both directions. Normally it's a 45 minutes commute, this morning he was still stuck in traffic after 90 minutes and still nowhere near work. He wasn't the only one, anyone coming from our direction to control was stuck in the same jams, so they all called in late. But for James, sitting still for so long made his back and leg intensely painful. He asked if a team leader would meet him when he finally got to work, to help him out of the car. They did, but also brought the on duty paramedic who said the amount of pain James was in no way could he sit for a ten-hour shift. So, he got sent home and told to call in sick.

Thankfully, it's a day off for him tomorrow, so he should be fine going back Friday.

It's also a Bodhisitting morning tomorrow. The first for a while, so it'll be nice to spend time with her. It's also forecast to be 19C so I can see me sitting in the garden watching her bounce on her trampoline.

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