#I made them in 2019 and NH came out so soon after!

[aforestlife]

vintage festive cheer for you ✨❄️🎄

#amy's screenshots #ACWW #festive #night #dafdilly #I found these in my 3ds screenshots folder and I don't think I ever really got enough use out of these patterns I made #I made them in 2019 and NH came out so soon after! #*

[newstfionline]

Friday, February 5, 2021

Canada puts Proud Boys on terror list, cites active security threat (Reuters) Canada named the far-right Proud Boys a terrorist entity on Wednesday, saying it posed an active security threat and played a “pivotal role” in last month’s attack on the U.S. Capitol that left five people dead. Although the Proud Boys have never mounted an attack in Canada, Public Safety Minister Bill Blair said domestic intelligence forces had become increasingly worried about the group. The group’s assets can now be frozen by banks and financial institutions, and it is a crime for Canadians to knowingly deal with assets of a listed entity. Anyone belonging to the group can be blocked from entering Canada. The move underscored constitutional concerns about a Canadian government’s ability to designate a group as a terrorist entity, said Leah West, a national security professor at Ottawa’s Carleton University and former lawyer with the Canadian justice department. Designations are impossible to challenge beforehand and difficult to address afterward, especially given lawyers may be reluctant to provide counsel to members of a terrorist group, she said by phone.

US to cut off support for Saudi-led operations in Yemen amid humanitarian crisis (Guardian) The US has announced an end to its support for Saudi-led offensive operations in Yemen, citing the role the bombing campaign has had in creating the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. The announcement was made byJoe Biden during a visit to the state department, capping a whiplash fortnight of dramatic foreign policy changes since his 20 January inauguration. “This war has to end,” Biden said. “And to underscore our commitment, we’re ending all American support for offensive operations in the war in Yemen, including relevant arms sales.” The distancing of Washington from Riyadh is one of the most conspicuous reversals of Donald Trump’s agenda, but it also marks a break with the policies pursued by Barack Obama, who had backed the Saudi offensive in Yemen, although he later sought to impose constraints on its air war. The US will also freeze arms sales to Saudi Arabia, and name a special envoy to Yemen, to put more pressure on the Saudis, Emiratis and the Houthi forces they are fighting, to make a lasting peace agreement.

Capt. Tom’s legacy lives on (AP) The legacy of Capt. Tom Moore, the super fundraiser who died Tuesday of COVID-19, lives on in others. Capt. Tom, a World War II veteran recovering from a broken hip, set out to raise 1,000 pounds ($1,400) by walking 100 laps of his back garden before his 100th birthday last April. Three weeks later, he had raised 33 million pounds ($45 million) for Britain’s NHS after his quest cheered a nation in lockdown and triggered donations from around the world. But he also made a broader impact as his simple challenge—to do whatever you can to help others—persuaded the young it’s never too soon to start, and the old that it’s never too late. Take Margaret Payne, 90, who walked up the stairs in her home 282 times to raise 416,000 pounds for the NHS. Payne, from Ardvar in the Scottish Highlands, calculated that the feat was the equivalent of climbing 731 meters (2,398 feet), or the height of Suilven, one of Scotland’s best known mountains that she scaled when she was 15. And then there’s Tony Hudgell, a 5-year-old who lost both legs after being abused as a baby, set out to walk 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) and raise 500 pounds for the Evelina London Children’s Hospital. After completing the challenge in a series of daily walks he had attracted more than 1 million pounds of donations. “Captain Sir Tom inspired so many people to take on their own extraordinary challenges, from running marathons to swimming lakes, and he gave us all hope,” said Ellie Orton, chief executive of NHS Charities Together.

How a Bavarian supermarket is helping shoppers find love amid shutdown (The Local/Germany) Can you find love while shopping in Germany? For many, a supermarket may be just about the least likely place for a starry eyed encounter. An Edeka supermarket in the Bavarian town of Volkach, however, is trying to break through barriers amid the coronavirus crisis: every Friday evening has been set aside for “singles shopping.” Every Friday between 6 and 8pm, singles can grab a heart with a number on it at the entrance and stick it on their jacket. If they spot someone they fancy amid the shelves, they can opt to have that person’s number called out at the checkout. Those who are a bit more bashful can simply leave their phone number with a message. For this purpose, slips of paper are laid out on which the type of contact can be ticked off, such as: “I’d be happy to meet you for an orange juice in the fruit department.” “Nothing has taken off yet,” a butcher’s assistant told Bavarian news website Merkur amid a display of schnitzel and minced meat. “At least not here by the meat, but maybe in another department.”

Mountain heartbreak: Italy has deep snow, closed ski resorts (AP) The granite peaks that majestically encircle the northern Italian town of Cortina d’Ampezzo glimmer with one of the most prolific snowfalls in years, while the COVID-19 pandemic silences Italy’s winter resorts. Italy’s 2019-2020 ski season closed unexpectedly early last March, when the country became the first Western country pummeled by the pandemic. A new season has yet to launch, unlike in neighboring Switzerland, which in December allowed lifts to open with restrictions, or in Austria, where residents still can ski. France’s ski lifts remain closed at least through February. In Italy, the pandemic-related closures are a hit to an industry that generates 1.2 billion euros ($1.5 billion) in annual revenues and employs 5,000 permanent and 10,000 seasonal workers, according to the association of ski lift operators, ANEF. The association said last year’s early end to the season led to a 20% revenue decline and called the current season a total loss. Factoring in hotels, restaurants and other services, the ski industry generates 11 billion euros ( $13.2 billion) in annual revenues, but travel restrictions have kept activity near zero on top of the stilled lifts.

Twitter Unblocked Accounts That Criticized India’s Government. Now, Its Employees Are Being Threatened With Jail Time Unless It Blocks Them Again. (BuzzFeed News) India’s government has threatened to punish employees at Twitter with fines and jail terms of up to seven years for restoring hundreds of accounts it has ordered the company to block. Most accounts were critical of the country’s prime minister, Narendra Modi. On Monday, Twitter complied with the government’s order and prevented people in India from viewing more than 250 accounts belonging to activists, political commentators, a movie star, and the Caravan, an investigative news magazine. Most accounts had criticized Modi, India’s Hindu nationalist prime minister, and his government. But the company restored the accounts approximately six hours later after a Twitter lawyer met with IT ministry officials, and argued that the tweets and accounts constituted free speech and were newsworthy. India’s government disagreed. On Tuesday, the IT ministry sent a notice to Twitter, ordering it to block the accounts once again. It also threatened people who work at Twitter’s Indian arm with legal consequences, which could include a fine or a jail term of up to seven years. “This is really problematic,” said Nikhil Pahwa, editor of MediaNama, a technology policy website, and an internet activist. “I don’t see why the government of India should wade into this territory of trying to censor tweets when they have much bigger problems to deal with.”

Myanmar charges Suu Kyi, giving legal basis to detain her (AP) Police leveled their first formal charge against Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi, her allies said Wednesday, accusing the ousted leader of possessing illegally imported walkie-talkies and giving the military authorities who staged a coup a legal reason to detain her for two weeks. The charge came to light two days after Suu Kyi was placed under house arrest and appeared to be an effort to lend a legal veneer to her detention, though the generals have previously kept her and others locked up for years. The military announced Monday that it would take power for one year—accusing Suu Kyi’s government of not investigating allegations of voter fraud in recent elections. Suu Kyi’s party swept that vote, and the military-backed party did poorly.

Myanmar blocks Facebook as resistance grows to coup (AP) Myanmar’s new military government has blocked access to Facebook as resistance to Monday’s coup surged amid calls for civil disobedience to protest the ousting of the elected civilian government and its leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Facebook is especially popular in Myanmar and the ousted government had commonly made public announcements on the social media site. Internet users said the disruption began late Wednesday night, and mobile service provider Telenor Myanmar confirmed in a statement that mobile operators and internet service providers in Myanmar had received a directive from the communications ministry to temporarily block Facebook. The political party ousted in Monday’s coup and other activists in Myanmar have called for a campaign of civil disobedience to oppose the takeover. In the vanguard are medical personnel, who have declared they won’t work for the military government and who are highly respected for their work during the coronavirus pandemic that is taxing the country’s dangerously inadequate health system. For a second night Wednesday, residents in Yangon engaged in “noise protests,” with people banging pots and pans and honking car horns under cover of darkness.

Japan’s population decline (Nikkei Asian Review) Japan’s population shrank by a record 420,000 people last year, government estimates show, as the coronavirus pandemic dealt a heavy blow to an influx of foreign workers that had helped offset the country’s ongoing natural population decline. The total fell for a 12th straight year, shattering the previous record of 329,000 set just a year earlier. The health ministry estimates Japan’s population at 125.57 million as of Jan. 1, based on confirmed data through July and estimates based on births, deaths and foreign arrival and departure data. The drop owes in large part to a 60% plunge in foreign arrivals that has kept the labor market tight even though the pandemic has slowed the economy and eliminated many jobs.

In Iraq’s ‘Dire’ Economy, Poverty Is Rising—And So Are Fears Of Instability (NPR) With the gold domes of the famed Kadhimiya shrine as a backdrop, nearby streets full of shops, markets and tea-sellers in Baghdad look bustling and vibrant, even at night. Tempting windows display sparkly clothes and cascades of candy in rainbow colors. But shopkeepers say no one has been buying much since Iraq devalued its dinar against the dollar last year. Around the world, economies have been crushed by the pandemic. The International Monetary Fund reported in October that most Mideast economies plunged into recession. But some places are especially vulnerable, among them Iraq. Its economy depends overwhelmingly on oil exports, and as travel halted and demand for fuel dwindled, government revenues tumbled along with oil prices. Government revenues plummeted by 47.5% in the first eight months of last year, the World Bank reports. With drastically less oil revenue, the government has been paying its salaries and pensions intermittently or not at all. Economists say Iraq’s poverty rate may have shot up from 20% in 2018 to 30% or more last year. To try to make it easier to pay those salaries, as well to encourage people to buy domestically instead of relying on imports, the government devalued the dinar against the dollar by about 20% in December. But as Iraq produces very little, people have little choice but to buy imported goods—which are only more expensive now. “Iraq’s economic situation can probably best be described as being dire,” says Ali al-Saffar of the International Energy Agency.

Beirut blast victims want the truth (AP) Days after a massive explosion ripped through Beirut’s port and disfigured the Lebanese capital, family members of some of the 211 people killed in the blast demanded an international probe. It was a swift vote of no confidence in the authorities’ ability to investigate one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history and one of the nation’s most traumatic experiences. The skepticism was justified. Lebanon, a country wrought by political violence and assassinations, has a history of unfinished prosecutions and buried secrets. Six months after the Aug. 4 blast, the domestic investigation has been brought to a virtual halt by the same political and confessional rivalries that thwarted past attempts to uncover the truth in major crimes. Lebanon’s sectarian-based political factions have had a lock on power in the country for decades and have divvied up posts across the state among themselves. Though rivals, they have a common interest in preventing accountability. Aya Majzoub of Human Rights Watch said a U.N. fact-finding mission is needed. “We can’t rest our hope and faith on a broken system that has proven incredibly resilient. We can’t expect the very people who are implicated in these crimes and other big crimes in Lebanon to lead reform.”

In thrice-demolished village, a Mideast battle of wills (AP) It looks like the aftermath of a tornado. There are dirt plots where there used to be makeshift homes; tent poles stacked like firewood; fencing and scrap metal scattered across a desert valley greened by winter rain; a cold firepit and a pile of kitchen essentials where a cooking tent once stood. This is what remains of the herding community of Khirbet Humsu in the occupied West Bank, after Israeli forces demolished it for the third time in as many months. On Wednesday, just minutes after the army left, Palestinian residents were at work repairing their fences—hoping to gather their sheep before dark, knowing the army might return the next day. “We build it up and they tear it down,” said Waleed Abu al-Kbash as he stretched fencing between two posts. “Where am I supposed to go? I have a thousand head of sheep.” Khirbet Humsu, perched on the rolling highlands above the Jordan Valley, is part of the 60% of the West Bank known as Area C, which is under full Israeli military control as part of interim peace agreements from the 1990s. Israel planned to annex the Jordan Valley and other parts of the occupied West Bank last year after getting a green light from the Trump administration, but it put annexation on hold as part of a U.S.-brokered normalization agreement with the United Arab Emirates. It still maintains complete control over the territory, leaving Bedouin communities like the one at Khirbet Humsu at constant risk of displacement. Shepherds who rely on seasonal rains and scattered springs are also at the mercy of an arbitrary cycle of demolition and rebuilding.

Innovation (Bloomberg) South Korea returned to first place in the latest Bloomberg Innovation Index, while the U.S. dropped out of a top 10 that features a cluster of European countries. Korea regained the crown from Germany, which dropped to fourth place. The Asian nation has now topped the index for seven of the nine years that it’s been published. Singapore and Switzerland each moved up one spot to rank second and third.

#headlines #news

[grannygerd]

I’m Lynn from PVRIS! AMA

I’m Lynn from PVRIS. We just put out our new album Use Me which you can listen to HERE. This Saturday, we’re going to be playing our first album White Noise front to back in its entirety for the first time ever. You can get tickets for the live stream HERE.

Proof: https://imgur.com/9K4IgJf

DieDunkleFritte: Hey Lynn, would you rather have really small hands or really small feet? Best regards from germany :D pvrisofficial: Feet!!! Need normal sized hands to play instruments! haha

Nikkiestables: Lynn!!! I was in the US for my exchange and was going to FINALLY see you in person but I couldn’t:( do you think in the future you would tour Asia? Which parts would you like to explore? (Please say Hong Kong) pvrisofficial: We'd love to tour Asia more! We've loved the places we've been in Japan, Singapore, & South Korea so far! Would love to add Hong Kong!

ShadeOfNothing: Hey Lynn! I’ve been a PVRIS fan Since White Noise and I’ve loved seeing the band’s sound evolve through the years. I know you’re a huge believer in astrology, past lives, and the paranormal, so I was wondering if there were any crazy experiences you had witnessed or drew inspiration from while writing/producing Use Me. Thanks so much! pvrisofficial: yessssssss I am a nut. I didnt make Use Me in a haunted church this time but i DO think I stayed at a haunted airbnb. Food kept disappearing and then one night a giant ghostly handprint was left on my guitar case and my hand was way too small to have created it.

hinterscape: Hi Lynn! I've been following you guys since ~2014, you're awesome and I look up to you. Do you see yourself making music forever or how long do you see it if not? pvrisofficial: FOR-E-VER! It might take different forms and go through different stages but i think i will always be creating music!

imaliveunfortunately: Hi Lynn! First of all I love you and the style of music you've put out recently. I saw you at Reading last year, and in Manchester in 2017 so I'm really happy to seeing PVRIS get the exposure it deserves :) So it's gotta be asked, I understand there's issues with the label, but what are the chances of Mvdonna and Blood On My Hands being released? Whether it be as singles, on a new EP, the next album, etc? They're just damn good tracks pvrisofficial: I want them to come out SO BAD too haha. I want to make sure the production is perfect so its now a matter of finding the right collaborator for them.

CookThePasta: Do you believe in life after love? pvrisofficial: yes

OldManMalekith: Hi Lynn! How did working with JT on Use Me differ from your previous experiences with producers? Everyone that I've seen or heard work with him puts it as a really positive experience, and he helps make great stuff! pvrisofficial: He is the BEST. He was very similar to Blake in the sense that he was incredibly nurturing and encouraging, dedicated to making sure it was 100% everything I wanted and always stood up for me if the label ever tried to change it. His production style is definitely different but its extremely diverse. It's a lot punchier and crisper and a bit more minimal than in the past but i think it almost makes things more impactful that way!

villanelleinsuits: Hi Lynn! You’re a creative genius, thanks for existing. If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be and why?? pvrisofficial: I would love to live in the UK countryside!!! Maybe Bath or something.

Queenio01: How are you feeling today? pvrisofficial: Sleepy but EXCITED to rehearse!

dancorcoran: How often do you get recognised by fans in day to day life? pvrisofficial: Not too often! I usually get recognized at coffee shops and starbucks though? and Lush hahaha

jessica_pasta: Hi Lynn!!! Was wondering how do you make your synth patches? What synth sounds are your favorites? Thanks so much! Love PVRIS and all that you do ❤️❤️❤️❤️ pvrisofficial: I use Zebra a lot and also use a Prophet Rev2. One of my favorite things is to throw synths through different effects to get an entirely new sound!

ImadaPC: Hi Lynn, I got a question. What inspires you to make music and why? pvrisofficial: What inspires me is wanting to hear something I havent heard! I want to hear all my favorite artists and influences into one thing so that's usually how PVRIS stuff is inspired haha.

staceelogreen: What are your stand out albums of this year!:) pvrisofficial: Great Q! 070 Shake - Modus Vivendi Tinashe - Songs For You (technically 2019 but I've been jamming it all year) They. - The Amanda Tape KAYTRANADA - Bubba (2019 but it came out late 2019 so it counts as 2020 for me!) Howling - Colure

DH00338: What are you most excited about in terms of this new era of PVRIS? pvrisofficial: More writing!! and more collaborations!

creewitch: Hiya Lynn! I hope your morning is going well. When have you felt the proudest of yourself and why? ☺️ pvrisofficial: Oooo good Q! I always think there's room for improvement so it's hard to feel pride, but I am definitely grateful for my resilience through the crazy shit haha.

liky_gecko: Because you’re from the Boston area, what are your favorite spots to eat/hang out there? I may be going to school there pvrisofficial: Do itttt! My fav spots are a little outside of the city.... the Crane Estate, Mt. Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Maudslay State Park in Newburyport, Portsmouth NH, Shedd Park Cemetery in Lowell.

goszkv: Hi Lynn! Was wondering if you'll ever consider coming to Poland :( ofc post corona pvrisofficial: yes!

cecy_db_11: Hi Lynn! Can't wait to see you guys this Saturday. How do you feel once the songs you write (your personal feelings and thoughts) are available for the world to listen? Do you get used to that over time? pvrisofficial: Still getting used to that to be honest. Once songs are out, I weirdly stop listening to them. Prior to that I listen in the car a lot and drive around testing songs out haha.

musicfan1976: Do you think the spring 2020 shows will still happen or be rescheduled again due to Covid? Stay healthy and take care. pvrisofficial: I truly have no idea.... :( you take care too! <3

yikesmiles: Hey Lynn! I hope you’re well! I’ve always been curious, what was it that inspired you to make music? pvrisofficial: Good Q! WHen I write, I try to write music that I want to hear that hasn't crossed my path yet.

LeahLNurse: Is there any unreleased songs you wish made it onto White Noise? pvrisofficial: Nope!

JRuiz1775: Hey Lynn! I remember the first time I saw and heard you guys was when you opened for Pierce the Veil and Sleeping with Sirens. I was hooked and have tried to see you guys anytime you are in my area. My question for you is what is your favourite tour experience? What is your dream tour to be on? pvrisofficial: There's SO many favorite tour experiences. I love touring the UK and Europe a lot, exploring before shows is my favorite thing and has some of my favorite memories. Our UK/EU tour with BMTH was one of my favorites.

ac-36: hi lynn! i love your music so much, it means a lot to me. if you were to remake your past music now, how do you think it would be different, and what do you think the future direction of the band will be? pvrisofficial: I would definitely approach the drum production a bit different but keep it pretty similar with the other textures/instruments! Future direction can go anywhere! Definitely want to keep taking risks and trying new things, but still keeping it dark!

staceelogreen: If you could go back in time to give yourself advice, what would you say to your past self? pvrisofficial: Take it easy on yourself.

NouveauJacques: Hi Lynn, huge fan and I love the power behind your music. Do you ever write songs that are too emotional and feel conflicted about putting into an album? pvrisofficial: usually if they feel too emotional or heavy, I know they need to be released haha

Defiant-Strawberry37: Hi Lynn, hope everything's okay with you and the band. I'd like to ask you what PVRIS' era you think is the best and why? Hope I can see you guys someday soon acting in Portugal. Love you all! PS: why so Lynnda? *portuguese pun intended, beautiful = linda in portuguese* ly! pvrisofficial: Thanks! I love every era tbh but I'm definitely always the most excited on the present moment!

pvrisbae: youre the cutest little soul ily. whats ur fav song at the moment? pvrisofficial: Brian showed it to me! It's "Too Late" by Washed Out.

agnespvris: Hi Lynn!! Have you had any good laughter when you've been looking through the #pvrismemes ?? pvrisofficial: oh you betcha.

whothefuckisrvmi: ok so im not understanding shit about this app but im here for you pvrisofficial: thank u

vioIentbounce: hi lynn! what do you think will be your favorite song from use me to play live? pvrisofficial: I think.... Good To Be Alive or Gimme A Min

jaydenc30: hi lynn I just wanted to say how much I appreciate you and everything you do! I hope you are doing well, what was the first song you wrote for use me? What’s does PVRIS’s future look like to you? pvrisofficial: First song for Use Me was Old Wounds! I wrote it before the second album even came out haha

IrlandaBDelao: Hi lynn, would you be down to open commisions for tattoos? If so, how much would you charge for a drawing? pvrisofficial: I wish! I do not have time to at the moment :( but if I have time in the future, you will be first to know so you can get first dibs!

CookThePasta: are you really looking at all of our memes?? pvrisofficial: trying OUR BEST!!

nonoplznowhy: why did your parents name you Lynn? pvrisofficial: Lyndsey* but they always call me Lynn or Lynds. I was named after my mom's childhood bestfriend named Lynn, she passed away when my mom was pretty young :(

golrip: What is your favourite song on awknohawnoh and why? That album literally changed my life and shaped me into the person I am today so I would really love knowing your opinion. also: what's your favourite the weeknd song/album? pvrisofficial: NOLA 1! It was my favorite to write and the memory around that time is magical. We wrote it in New Orleans and it's my favorite city.

bnizz95: Hey Lynn!! I saw you guys perform for the first time live in Cambridge last September and im so excited about the stream. I was wondering what your favorite song/songs off this album are? Also, do you still steal rosemary from your neighbors? Hahaha pvrisofficial: hahaha I have a little rosemary plant that I use now :)

vioIentbounce: are you still making collages? if not, have you taken up any new artistic hobbies lately?❤️ pvrisofficial: Little collaging here and there :) I've been researching a lot of interior design and fashion design lately!

fee-lixdawkins: Hey Lynn! Excited for the livestream! I know you’re an AFI fan. What is your favorite album and song(s) by them? Would you ever want to tour with them? I’d kill to see that happen! Take care! pvrisofficial: Brian is the bigger AFI fan! I cant pick a fave Im scared

ivykrvft: How does it feel to (kinda) be performing again as an entire band after all these months? pvrisofficial: Really good!! Definitely going to be weird without you guys in front of us!!

Ariana_0918: hi lynn <3 i wanted to know when you saw florence in concert what was your favorite song she performed live? pvrisofficial: Cosmic Love. She played it first and it was acoustic, I instantly cried hahahaha

TheSinger_Z: Hey Lynn! How old were you when you first started writing songs? What is the most memorable prank/joke that you have pulled or has been pulled on you while on tour? How many instruments do you play and what’s your favourite? I just want to say thank you, you’re my biggest inspiration when it comes to music (I sing and I’m learning to play guitar and hope to do it professionally when I’m older as I’m only 14 😬), and I’m really thankful for you guys. I got meet and greet tickets for November 30th for the White Noise stream, so see you then! pvrisofficial: i was in the 3rd grade. the songs were horrible. Its not really a prank but we love having our in ear monitor tech do the worm on stage sometimes. Extra points when he does it in costume. I can play 7 instruments! Looking to add more to the arsenal over time. I love piano a lot and drums. Keep it up, can't wait to see you be a star!!! ALso the livestream is the 21st! DOnt want you to miss it :)

CheezeGrenade: I missed out on a lot of concerts growing up and I couldn't make it to a concert out of state that I bought tickets to about a year ago. Will you guys play through Awkohawnoh again in anyway? Such as Half/Winter/No Mercy/Walk Alone. Litterally that album and the one before got me through alot of depressive phases in my life and Awk has really inspired alot of my writing for a series I want to create someday. pvrisofficial: I cant wait for you to start writing it! You got this! We will be playing through AWKOHAWNOH but the date is not announced yet :)

srankie: Are y'all Pats fans? Red Sox? Bruins? Cause if not the Eagles family will accept you with open arms pvrisofficial: NEW ENGLAND/BOSTON ALL DAY BABY!

macauley7: Could u please ask harry styles if u could tour with him? I need a pvris x harry watermelon sugar vibes thanks pvrisofficial: I'll call him right now.

brisbubbles: Hey, Lynn! Can’t wait for Saturday! I was wondering, how do you feel about singing old tracks from WN since you relearned how to sing? What has that experience been like? Wishing you and Brian the best! xzlinx: I am wondering about this as well. Maybe I am just nosey but I wonder about the process of retraining your voice and what exactlt happened. It must have been insanely difficult on her mental health but goddamn what a trooper bc Use Me is unbelievable! pvrisofficial: Great questions!!! Singing WN is definitely a little challenging to begin with because I'm older and my tone isn't the tone of 19 year old me anymore haha. A big thing was anxiety which caused me to choke up a lot and tense my chords. Then when i was being coached, out of fear of damaging something we had to rebuild and start small and light which we think caused the chords/muscles to atrophy, which set it back further haha. I eventually went to another coach who then was able to take my "retrained" voice and then strengthen it up and rebuild it back to where it was before!

ImOnlyHalfAlive: Hey Lynn! First, I can't express just how much PVRIS has meant to me over the last couple of years. Your music has helped me through so much, and I will forever be grateful. My question is: What's a life mantra you've always lived by? pvrisofficial: Life mantra (theres a lot but this one I always connect to when it comes to career): Patience and persistence is key.

Okosano: Hi Lynn and greeting from Germany! The one and only important question here : Whats your favorite comfort food? pvrisofficial: Favorite comfort food...... Indian food! My absolute favorite.

Ok-Personality1480: What’s your favorite tea pls 🤠 pvrisofficial: Throat coat for singing, housemade chai for joy.

CookThePasta: Do you know the muffin man? pvrisofficial: yes

LynnGvnnFvn: What were the creative differences between writing an album like White Noise or AWKOHAWNOH and Use Me? pvrisofficial: Age, time, locations, different producers and collaborators!

unit525: How are the submissions for the meme competition looking? Any front runners emerging? pvrisofficial: It's a CLOSE call for a lot of them...

LynXiger: Which song from your discography is your least favourite and why? pvrisofficial: I wont say incase it is anyone's favorite!! hahaha

lgbtiffany: do you have a tendency to incorporate spirituality into your creative processes? love the album and can’t wait for the stream ✨❤️ pvrisofficial: I think creating is spiritual in itself! You're channeling sound and melody and MAGICCC! So yes!

vessed1: hiii. I’d love to know who found the White Noise mirror ☺️ pvrisofficial: Me too

LynXiger: What is your favourite genre to listen to? And how has this changed over time? pvrisofficial: I'm a big sucker for hip hop and pop... really anything that's catchy and hits hard and has cool production!

nicthehic: Hey Lynn! Been a huge fan for a long long time and took up doing music professionally because I was inspired by you and the rest of Pvris’ rise and work ethic. I was wondering if there was anything you would do differently while recording your first album and any advice to new ish band working on their first professional project (in the midst of covid no less) and any tips to make our first album just as great and timeless as white noise Thank you! pvrisofficial: Awww this is awesome! I'm sure you're gonna crush it! I definitely would have wanted to make the production a little different but keep a lot of the same fundamental aspects/textures. Do what YOU feel you want to create and dont feel any outside pressures. Crush it! Cant wait for you to record!

minidudette106: Hey Lynn, Do you ever think its crazy that people get tattoos of your lyrics & ones inspired by your music? also wondering what your thoughts are on pineapple on pizza? lol pvrisofficial: I used to get freaked out bc I didnt think my lyrics were great but now I think its so cool! haha.

Hot-Lime3627: Hi Lynn, how is Opal and the other cat whom you took care of during quarantaine doing ? pvrisofficial: They are back with their owner! I truly miss them every single day... they were my little fluffy pals.

kelcea244: How do you keep your creative muscle flexed so you’re ready to create? And do you create every day? EDIT: Also really sad you guys weren’t able to make it over to the UK this month! We’ll be so psyched for you when you do come! pvrisofficial: We are sad too!!! We can't wait to get back whenever it is safe to play shows there. I miss it every day! I try to create every day even if it's just 5-10 minutes, always good to keep those muscles flexed!

socksgrowonbushes: first of all i just want to say how much i admire you, you’re amazing :) my question is what is your favourite song you have ever written? is it one that’s on an album? one that hasn’t even been released? i’m curious pvrisofficial: Use Me!

LadyEpicenter25: What the significance of playing in Arizona?! pvrisofficial: Resources to make the stream happen and rehearsals happen :)

bitchesonthephone: I have one question and one question only: When will we get Let’s Go Vertigo? pvrisofficial: NEVERRRRRR

Antique_Performer_45: Hi Lynn! I’ve been a big fan of PVRIS for a few years now. Which song from Use Me was your favorite to write? I love you guys! pvrisofficial: Use Me! or Good To Be Alive!

JadeAdelaideee: Hello!!! You’ve been a huge help with me realising I was gay, is there anyone who you would look up to when you were younger who sort of helped ease that journey? 💕✨ pvrisofficial: tbh i didnt have many. It was the scattered bits of magical gay representation on teen tv shows like Degrassi/Skins etc. haha

brandonjback: what song are you most proud of from AWKOHAWNOH? pvrisofficial: Anyone Else and NOLA 1!

DixieF: A question I've been waiting ages to ask. Why are you guys so awesome? pvrisofficial: We got awesome parents!!!

Emmahumphrees: Out of all yours songs what is your favourite lyric?? pvrisofficial: "On the porch the ceiling's painted baby blue dressed to the nines just like the sky in early afternoon 'cause it's midnight and the ghosts might be coming soon" Its a reference to a New Orleans superstition that the baby blue porch ceiling would ward off spirits in the night to trick them that it was the daytime sky.

lgbtiffany: what was the most difficult part of trying to regain your voice when you were having troubles with it? pvrisofficial: Definitely just getting on stage every night knowing it wasn't working and having to pretend it was... haha. Super embarrassing.

cnnrtower: Hi Lynn! MA fan here who first saw PVRIS open for A Skylit Drive at the Palladium in 2013. Super incredible to watch the journey for the band / yourself as an artist! What was the first gig/experience that made you stop and realize that PVRIS was going places? pvrisofficial: one of our first headline shows in CT back in 2015. Show was crazy!!

KimLC24: I was just wondering how you get your inspiration to do your art and music? because it can sometimes be hard to even get motivated let alone create pvrisofficial: Totally relate and understand! I won’t lie, the older I get, the more I need to hype myself up and set a tone to create, especially when there’s so much music swirling around us at all times (the internet/streaming/etc). I almost always have a moody or dreamy movie/show playing on my ipad next to me while I work so that way there’s an inspiring visual going.

deadweighttttt: Hi Lynn!!! What’s your all time favourite lyric from the album?! pvrisofficial: HII!! "Do you even notice how easy you've got this? Taking wings off a goddess if I'm being honest"

Pvffreis: Hi Lynn, I have no idea how to use this/reddit but great to see you here! Hope you're doing good? <3 Update: I figured out how to edit comments ayyy I just signed up to ask you this very important question: Red or green apples? pvrisofficial: Idk how either but I think I got it!! Red apples! W PB

dancingonslowsand: Hi Lynn!! Been following PVRIS for a while and I’ve loved seeing how your sound has evolved over the years. Do you have any idea of what direction you want the band to go in the future? Or are you just riding the wave and seeing what happens? Also what’s your fav bird pvrisofficial: Thanks so much! I definitely plan to just keep riding the wave… I feel like every album leaves some room for the direction to go anywhere so the next chapter never feels too restricted. I have been feeling pretty hyped and high energy lately so I feel like it may reflect that a bit! Fav bird is… PENGUINS (even though people debate that they are mammals.)

pvrisofficial: Okay my friends, I gotta head out and get to rehearsals! This was so much fun, sorry I couldn't get to every Q. Love yall! See you guys so soon! <3

November 18th, 2020

#lynn gunn #lynn gvnn #lyndsey gunnulfsen #pvris

[garym23-blog]

Sharing my experience of Prostatitis- I hope it helps somebody..

Hello, my name is Gary Mehmet. I am a 43 year old man who has over the past two years, been suffering with prostatitis. I am now in a position where I feel much better than since this illness began- about 85-90% better. I still have the odd relapse, which can cause pain for a few days, but I can see huge signs of progress and so in the spirit of wanting to pass something on that might help somebody else looking for help in this area, maybe somebody who does not have any idea how this may have come about or where to go for help or what to ask, I wanted to type something about my experience. I am just an ordinary man, average intelligence and definitely no writer, So I cannot promise you an exciting or super witty read, but if you can get through what I have written in one piece, then I hope you find something helpful in getting the help you need. so here goes, I am going to try and share something of my experience..1,2,3.

How I believe this started:

It was early March 2017. We were away for a few days on the Isle of Wight with our newborn son, Jamie. The first I knew, was overnight, waking to go to the toilet and physically being unable to. I sat and waited and waited and I pushed as far as I could but nothing. I could not pee. That was really the only sign.

There was a lot of stress in my life at this time, not really too interesting; usual things really, divorce in 2014 after 16 years together, an unhappy career in hotel corporate sales lasting 15 years on and off, an altercation with a bully in 2013, which sent my life into a spiral that I am still trying to recover from. That's not normal, you say? Really? Well, there you go. We are all different. I have faced some challenges and made my decisions, some of which I regret but none of which I can change. And I have experienced my share of pain, like anybody else. I am doing my best to move on and to grow as a Man. But looking back on where Prostatitis fits into all of this, it seems to me that this particular illness followed this period of time, so stress may have brought this condition on..

My experience with the NHS

I have been to see a few doctors in the UK. initially, we rushed from the Isle of Wight to visit a drop in 24 hour emergency centre in Hastings. I was seen by a nurse who asked for a sample. I was amazed that I was able to produce this, but I did manage to pee a little and it hurt to do so. The feeling was a like a burning sensation. The sample was screened under something like an ultra violet coloured lamp and the nurse said, this was definitely a Urinary Tract Infection (UTI). I was soon after seen by a doctor, who said that this type of infection was very uncommon for a man because of the length of our ……. Apparently this doctor did not believe in bedside manner. He got straight to the point and I will be honest, I did worry.

I was sent off from this appointment with my urine sample and asked to bring it to a local hospital for further testing. I handed my sample to a member of staff at the department of the hospital, as advised. And that was that. I was told the results would be with my local GP in about a few days time.

I went to see my local GP, in Ashford, Kent and my sample had been lost... But a message later came back saying everything was clear..(which seemed strange to me because no further explanation was given as to the connection between the sample being lost and everything now being okay) So, not sure what to make of that, but that was that.

The doctor prescribed antibiotics and I took antibiotics for a good few weeks. I think I went through 2-3 courses of  antibiotics. When I ran out, I would make a new appointment and ask a doctor for another. Each doctor said something a little different, like it might be in my mind, ‘you need to stop worrying..’ ‘this is an aftershock in the body after a UTI and it will settle on its own..’ and ‘your prostate feels a little enlarged, we can arrange for you to see a urologist..’ a process, I discovered would take around 12-16 weeks. The NHS is not the best system, but I experienced care by a variety of doctors who were all doing their best to help me.

I cannot remember exactly how long antibiotics seemed to help me for.. I remember feeling better taking them than not, otherwise I would not have asked for more, but it never took the pain away and when the course ran out, the pain would return fully. For me, this mostly meant pain at night, in the centre of my groin (I cannot describe it better than that) just a deep and low- medium level pain that I imagine like a storm brewing... I was unable to lie on either side and would wake several times at night sometimes 2-4 times an hour and I remember having a very difficult time trying to go. In the day time, I would feel the need to go, try to go and then be sitting for up to 45 minutes trying to..you know..go... I could not sleep well, I could not wake up and slowly, I started losing all energy and becoming anxious and tense.

Before, I got the chance to see the Urologist via the NHS referral system, My wife and I had decided to move to Germany for a few years, a bit of space from the pain of the past few years and a transfer opportunity that had come up for my wife, meaning we could go immediately. My wife had friends and family near Munich.. So, we decided we would rent our home and go… And that was July 2017.

It is now March 6th 2019, we are still here. I am having a challenge learning German, but I have learnt a lot and continue to learn as the weeks go by. I have been approached by companies out here for work, which is great, but mostly sales roles and I am trying not to do this. I have spent a period looking after my son, until we could get him into a local Kita (early stage nursery) and a period sorting my health out, because up until the last 2 months, I have not been able to get through a single day consistently well. (Oh and top of prostatitis, I have developed a new chronic allergy to Birch Pollen and as luck would have it, we have a huge collection of said trees right outside our apartment.. I wheeze at night and cannot sleep; either because of wheezing or prostate problems... It has been a strange and uncomfortable experience. I am not saying it is worse than anybody else's only that for me, I have found this very difficult to manage my health day to day, steaming every surface my wife and son touch as they come home, tablets to lessen allergic reactions, asthma inhalers, nasal sprays, (in the past few months, I have also been through a course of injections (‘desensibilisierung’) to help my body), humidifiers to help clean the air and various air purifiers We have recently found a good one and it is really helping, but it is early days. Hell broke loose when the birch pollen exploded mid-late last march.. It is only the 6th March..

Anyway, sorry back on track.. What next?

‘Urologists and Doctors a plenty’ in Germany

It is easy to see doctors out here, in Wolfratshausen and Munich. Everything is private but affordable. I have seen several doctors and the experience has been mixed. in this time, I have seen urologists both old school and an homeopathic urologist. I have had the cystoscopy, which actually really hurt.. Sorry if you don't know what that is-- well..It involved a tube with a camera on the end of it and that is inserted into the tip of your urethra and pushed on and on and on (it seemed) until they (the doctor and nurse) could see what was going on in the bladder and prostate areas.  A numbing jelly is applied to the tip of your penis and then comes the tube. It should not be painful and foremost I dont think it is. Why was it  painful for me then? I’ll come back to that in a minute. Anyway, this examination revealed nothing. I was then sent to a local General Doctor, who also could not think how to help me. No signs of cancer, my prostate did not seem ‘interesting’ to the Urologist anyway, normal for my age not big, not small, but fine.. And as I said, the doctor had little help to offer, at all, in fact. My wife and i came out of the appointment both shaking our heads in disbelief.

But, I think it is worth noting that I was not offered more antibiotics by this urologist or any other doctor, which actually, I appreciated. At the urologist, the first thing you do other than show your health insurance card and say I have an appointment.. Is go and pee in a cup and leave it for a nurse or other professional to check for signs of infection.. This happens before you walk into your actual appointment..

Online Learning..

My wife and I were doing a lot of research on the type of Urologist, we thought could help us. Normally, I understand that we should not as untrained professionals do our own research and self-diagnose.. My experience so far, was that this was not a simple matter and I needed to try and educate myself a little- I found a book, which I will come to, a little later and that helped me to learn some things but otherwise the research was to really find a doctor we believe could help us.

From the doctors, we had seen until now, it seemed to us, like we needed a certain sort of doctor to do that. It had felt for a while like we were being talked to but not listened to. I would prepare my notes on what I was experiencing, thinking this might provide clues that would help the doctor in identifying meaningful signs that would lead to a clear diagnosis. But nobody seemed to listen to us, until this point.. So we started searching through the websites of any urologists we could find until we found somebody we thought looked or sounded like they might be interested in listening to us.

Through this research, we found a nice female Urologist in Munich and we went to see her a few times. She did ask us questions, not to me, of course, (Deutsch ist sehr Schwierig..) but to my wife. And to her credit, she listened. Every doctor tests the urine sample but this lady asked for a semen sample.. She said I could go home to do this but I offered to assist, for the sake of expediency of course, after excusing myself for a short break to the toilet. This seemed to make her nervous as her face flushed, so my wife offered to bring a sample in the next day.

This test result was again clear. So no luck there. But after explaining my symptoms, this doctor prescribed a course of three tablets:

Tamulosin

Trospiumcholrid

Diclofenac

This combination seemed to create a whole new set of problems. I seemed to develop severe symptoms, which I did not understand. It feels really strange to admit that I could not at this time make the connection, in my mind, between these new symptoms and the new medication. I thought my illness had just taken a turn. It took several weeks before I started to question the medication being perhaps harmful and not helpful. 

In this time, I had become highly sensitive to eating almost anything- of course foods like Sauerkraut were off limits (far too acidic) but so seemed most meats, vegetables (Peppers for example), fruit (no more apples or strawberries) and even, can you believe it, beer!!!! (my weekend treat, was gone!), jam, sugar, apfelsaft/Juice even tea.

After nearly two months, I felt likei was on my knees and I asked my wife, sorry, will refer to her by name (veronika or Vroni for short), Vroni set up the appointment and we went back to see her a few days later. I brought my notes and the doctor seemed keen to hear but after listening to me, encouraged me to stay on the medication..

I was not comfortable doing this, so off we went again in search of a new doctor, to help.

Back to Wolfrathausen..

We went to a Urologist in Wolfratshausen (a different man within the same clinic as my first appointment here). This man was part English and had spent time living in England and it was for these reasons, where I knew I stood a better chance of communicating directly with the doctor and not through my wife, that we chose to see him). He was a straight talking old man, who spoke very directly and told me that I should not expect a full examination on seeing him(we had called and made an appointment to see a urologist and had explained our symptoms..) and that were other patients waiting.. In the short time, we were with him though,  the usual tests were conducted ie on my urine, a manual prostate exam (don't ask... okay, you lie on your side and the man wears a very thin plastic glove, applies some lubricant and.... Yep, you guessed it :) ) and he asked about the medication I had been taking. On hearing of the mecication I mentioned earlier, he very quickly told me that this sort of medication was only given to elderly men who are too old to be operated on and that this was far too heavy for me and strongly advised me to come off them immediately. He also told me that he did not believe diet had anything to do with my condition and that was just voodoo nonsense..

Great off the tablets then... but I still think diet is part of the problem..

Up until now, i had been trying to approach every doctor with an open mind and willing to try whatever was asked of me. But over time, I was starting to realise that I had to listen to my body and sometimes challenge advice given and because I was doing this and because there are more than one urologist available here in Bavaria, Germany, I eventually found my way to the doctor I have just mentioned and I felt confident now to come off the tablets. And it helped me. A lot. The food sensitivities eased within a few days and I was now back to where I was before with just a ‘straightforward’ set of prostate related problems.. taking too long to pee in the day, unable to sleep at night and waking to go between 2-11 times per night, trying to go, pushing, only able to go standing not sitting, never feeling emptied.

Looking into Homeopathy..

I had been reading as much as i could. I had come across the idea of an alkaline diet possibly helping- the concept of helping reduce the body’s acidity level being helpful for inflammation, so I thought there might be something in that.. After reading very briefly, I decided it was definitely not for me- the diet seemed so restrictive, like I would not be able to eat anything again- okay bit of an overstatement- but my meaning- it was not for me to be so restrictive with my eating ie no milk, no sugar, no meat, no bread, no pasta, no alcohol.. So I said no to that and we moved on. There had to be another way..

But looking into diet and connection with prostatitis got me thinking about other natural ways to help the body recover rather than the harsh chemicals/tablets I had been exposing myself to, so far. As luck would have it, we found an homeopathic urologist (again a lady) in Wolfratshausen.

This doctor did an ultrasound (like for a pregnant lady) of my bladder/prostate area and this was the first time, something more specific about my problem was shared with us.. She told us that the lining to my urethra looks damaged and that this was part of the problem.. Not quite sure how it happened, though... I came to thinking about a period in summer 2016, I had worn the same (yes, I am ashamed to admit this, but in the spirit of disclosure and trying to help somebody else, here it is..), the same pair of sports shorts for a few days without underwear. To ride my bicycle to the gym, have a workout, take a quick dip in the pool and a few minutes in the sauna and then even showering with my shorts on before riding home… I know, yuck!

I still don't know why I did this. The shorts were very comfortable and with a quick drying material.. I might not have the best personal habits but when I go out, I am quite serious about hygiene. This episode was an unusual one for me and perhaps in this time, an infection found its way into my urethra. When I really do think back to that time, my penis did seem to itch a little after a few days, I just did not think anything of it at the time so… I guess there it is… maybe that is where it started..

Natural treatments… From this point, we just trusted this doctor implicitly and did everything she said. She did not seem to want to ask me any questions, only tell me what to do, don't eat apples, no apple cider vinegar, drink lots of water, Fresh espresso is fine (phew!!), pineapples warm- are good, lemon water is especially good- to alkalise the body and so on.

We went home with a list of foods that were good or not good for me and we started making some changes. I don't remember them all, but a few habits that stuck-

Out

Apples

Strawberries

Kiwis

Wine

Weiss bier

Fruit juice

Fruit teas

Instant coffee

Vinegar (ie balsamic)

In

Lemon water

Espresso (mild)

Pineapple (warm)

Monitoring my water intake and especially the colour of my urine- looking for a nice bright yellow or clear colour- this actually really helped. I had much more comfortable days when my urine was light yellow/clear- that for me was from drinking 2-2.5L water per day.

Several weeks went by and it definitely felt like we were seeing progress I was getting more sleep and though still having difficulties when I did wake, in the day time, going to the toilet was starting to ease. I still could not go comfortably sitting down, but I was going easier than I had for a long time and that was great.

But things got worse. Again.. After several weeks, things seemed to get worse again. Not sure why. I was following the guidelines.. I was not happy being home alone and often deeply upset over not being able to see my children in England and other things but otherwise, not sure- though perhaps there is exactly the problem- stress/depression..?

We returned to the Urologist, again with a set of notes on how we were experiencing things. The doctor listened for a short time then interrupted us and gave us a new set of guidelines including a homeopathic - suppository (another thing to stick up the …. I think you know.. But if not, look it up.. )

I was advised when I awoke at night, in pain, to come away from bed and drink a cup of lemon water (hot/cold are both fine- I like mine hot- 1 whole lemon freshly squeezed with some chopped fresh ginger and honey- delicious!!) and if that did not help, then I should take the suppository.

I tried this a few times and I have promised myself to never, ever do it again. I am not going to describe anything further about it only to say, no. never again. Discomfort not worth it.

At this point, we felt we had again reached a limit with a doctor because again this doctor, as nice as she was, wanted to talk to us more than listen and when we did, we were often interrupted and we were just given a random list of new things to try when she saw us back at her door. I truly appreciate and respect this particular doctor. She helped us see that diet was a key in all of this, to limiting symptoms (not curing them) and that natural treatments could help us.

We wanted to keep following this line of enquiry and see if we could still make further progress because I was still living in pain and not ready to accept that this is how it will be, indefinitely.

The help we needed was right under our noses, so to speak..

As it turned out, my father in law had been also suffering with problems in the bladder/prostate area. He had been experiencing ‘spotting’ (blood) in his urine. This was tested and it was found that he had signs of cancer. He is a former teacher and has a very extensive health cover policy, far greater than the basic one I have. Teachers out here are all very well looked after out here. My father in law had been in and out of a well known private hospital (Klinikum Grosshadern) in Munich, where he had been treated and operated on. After several months, he has had the tumours/growths cut out and is reported to be completely cancer free, which is great news. After so much time when we were both seeing doctors about the same area of the body, finally, we talked about the doctor he was seeing. A specialist called Dr.Magestro.

Ordinarily, I would not have been able to see him because of our policy not covering his services. But, there was an opporutnity to go along to an open ‘surgery’ style session where I could share my experiences with an admin lady who would see if I fit some sort of criteria to be seen by this doctor. I did go along and was given an appointment and that was the start of a breakthrough, for me.

A breakthrough. Finally.. I remember seeing Dr.Magestro, very nervous and scared he would not waste much time with me. Of course, I took a lot of notes with me. I had also recently come across a book entitled- ‘A headache in the pelvis’ by David Wise and Rodney Anderson Which was very, very interesting to me- it is a massive book though at over 600 pages and as motivated as i am, I am also regrettably quite lazy when it comes to reading (okay, Vroni I admit it, yes I like buying books and lining them all up to read but, am very slow in getting round to reading them.. Conscious clear.). Anyway, I had been reading for a few weeks as much as I could before arranging to meet this doctor, in order to try and appear a little more knowledgeable because I thought that would make me less of a time waster and perhaps more of an interesting patient.. (I did not know any better at the time. I only knew this was an opportunity and I did not want to waste ie)

In a short time, I read about how doctors conventionally trained in Urology do not get much, if at all modern training on Prostatitis. It has long been suffered by people and there are different types ie:

Bacterial Prostatitis

Non bacterial prostatitis

Chronic Prostatitis

Pelvic pain syndrome

(Sometimes the problem is even NOT THE PROSTATE!)

I saw through what I read that the ideal situation for a doctor in this area is that they find an infection and throw some antibiotics at it- which wil help clear the infection, mostly. But the problem is where there is no sign of infection.. Doctors have limited time and resources at their disposal to try and investigate this matter further. It is complicated. (The book talks about a meeting point between mind and body often being in the Pelvis region.)

I have read anecdotes about doctors who will tell patients they are fine, to go home and make love to their wife because they are okay, as a placebo technique that can in itself create a reduction of symptoms- showing the power of the mind. But I read that this is also a limited strategy that only removes the symptoms for a short period- maybe a few weeks or months.  I also read about doctors who, as part of a study, deliberately told patients during examinations that they had the signs of cancer, to then note how the body of that patient would start to show signs of stress and an increase in certain symptoms, to then tell the patient they had made a mistake.. Sneaky, eh?! But also reinforcing the power of the mind to heal or hurt itself.

I learnt that prostatitis is often but not always connected with a UTI. I learnt that pharmaceutical companies and health insurance companies do not invest much in prostatitis and that this has a knock on effect on the priority that Urologists may give to patients with this condition. I read how people whose analogy includes the remains of a tailbone, in the same way as a dog will tuck in its tail when stressed, people can clench this area and over time this can give way to prostatitis like symptoms. Stress seems to be definitely involved.

Pain leads to anxiety, which leads to tension and this becomes a cycle.. Treatment has to focus on breaking that cycle and only in the past 30 or so years have a few specialised doctors at Stanford University been at the centre of pioneering treatments focused on a sort of three way treatment system involving a urologists care, physiotherapy to help loosen the tightened areas of the pelvis and psychologist/counselling to help with stress and other underlying issues. That is mostly what I recall from my reading. But please see the book yourself and do not take my word for it. I am just an ordinary guy with average intelligence..

But I hope you get some idea here, that I really tried to educate myself on this area, at least as much as I could.

Back to the appointment..

Okay, after the introductions, Dr. Magestro patiently invited me to explain my symptoms and he really listened- finally!! And more importantly, he asked questions back to me and made notes… He went through the usual examinations on my urine, manually checking my prostate and then asking for a further sample after the prostate examination, to get this time a sample from the actual prostate (sorry, cannot explain better than that) which would, he said shed some more light on what had been going on the past several months. The doctor was going to carry out some extensive tests to find the problem.

I remember at this point, feeling quite tearful, that we were finally in front of a doctor who really wanted to listen and help. The doctor was going to see me, as continued research into this area that he was involved in. We were invited back in 2 weeks time for the results..

The results..

We were nervous and for some reason a little excited to go in and find out what was wrong and how to put it right.. So you can imagine how we felt when the Doctor said he found… nothing…. I remember him asking questions at the beginning of the appointment about what we thought might be wrong, listening and nodding as I tried to explain my thoughts and memories only to then say, that he found nothing..

Keep calm and keep moving forwards..

We discussed this revelation and we brought up many memories of other doctors who had said the same thing but that we were still suffering and we needed help. The doctor assured us and told us that this was actually not uncommon and that he treated many people of all ages in all walks of life including politicians, sports stars, pilots and that he was going to put together a plan to help find a cure involving (and it was so good to hear him say this..) his care to oversee things, a physiotherapist and maybe a psychologist.  I knew I had found somebody special in this doctor, who listened and wanted to keep going to find a solution. He also labelled my condition as non bacterial prostatitis.

Because I did not have health cover for access to this doctor, we agreed on a flexible 6 weekly appointment. Dr. Magistro offered to try different treatments with me and to see after a period of 6 weeks how things were going and then review and change as necessary. He said he would do as much as he could to help and if necessary, pass me on to other colleagues to focus on other areas of care that might help. He also said that he was sure within 6 months, we can fix this problem (that was such beautiful music to my ears)..

And...?

We were initially prescribe a Verikur and Quercetin. One of these medications was supposed to relax the bladder, the other to reduce the urgency or frequency I felt, to go..After a few weeks, I made a decision to cut out the Verikur because I felt I was having a hard time with it. I stayed with just the Quercetin and I cut that down from 2 tablets x2 per day (after breakfast and dinner) to just one dose a day, I chose that to be in the evening after my main meal and a few hours before bedtime.- when my problems start to kick in.

From the start the feeling was great. I got a good night sleep and mostly only woke only once. That for me, was the biggest sign I have seen, since this whole thing began, that allowed me to believe that I could get better...

How are things going now? It has been about 3-4 months now since our first appointment with Dr.Magestro. I have found that Quercetin, has really helped me. I still have a few occasional nights where I wake 3-4 times they tend to be when I am stressed - I am working on that- but otherwise, I might wake 1 or 2 times and… get this… I am able to sit down and pee.. Should I admit that?! Too late.. And I can go while seated.. And in the middle of the night when I can hardly keep my eyes open, this is really helpful (I can remember swaying on my feet in times gone by, eyes closed because I was so tired and pushing myself to go)

So early days, but this simple supplement has made a positive difference. I just wanted to share this with you- so you can discuss with your urologist or doctor.

I am still going through my recovery process and of the three pillars of therapy, I have only looked at one, so this is really early stage but of course, I still hope one day to be completely free of prostatitis. I cannot pretend to be an expert in any of this, but I know more than I did when I first developed this problem and I know how difficult it was back then to find helpful information and that is why I wanted to try and share something of my experience. I hope it may help somebody to have a better idea where to look (with the help of a good doctor/urologist) for their own answers. But, if you have got this far, I am sorry to take such a long time to make my point. Conciseness and me do not seem to go together. My wife and last wife, do have an ability to switch off and on, while I talk so.. there is that..

You may feel like nobody understands you suffering in this way, especially if you are younger than 45 years old. Just please know that you are not alone and that lots of people have had and will have this condition but that urologists (and definitely not GP’s) are not all very well trained in this area. There are however very good doctors and urologists out there. Your mission is to find that doctor, for you; someody who

has experience in the area

wants to help you- Of course all doctors want to help- but in my experience, I have to say some more than others..

will listen as well as talk with you

you feel comfortable with. 

But I would stress the first three points- beggars cant be choosers, afterall! 

I hope one day prostatitis is a better understood and more easily treated condition. Until then, all we can do is try to help each other.

Wishing you health and happiness

All my best

Gary Mehmet

[bloojayoolie]

Being Alone, Andrew Bogut, and Apparently: Viserys A tiny, sweet, cuddly, baby boy, found tied outside in the bitter cold and abandoned Dreams of love & comfort Id 53127, 6 Mos., Neutered & Waiting for you Manhattan ACC INTAKE DATE – 1/21/2019 “Me and my friend Daenerys were found tied up outside in the cold” ☹ Just a baby, barely 6 months old, VISERYS has had to endure being completely and utterly abandoned in the freezing cold of a January day with his sibling. Alone, shaking with the bitter cold, they sat, hoping their parent would return. But they never did. They tried to be brave, but their hope was flagging. Then they were found and brought to the shelter. They were so happy, wagging furiously at all the staff, happy to be given treats and hugs and kisses. They have absolutely NO idea that soon, very soon, they will catch the dreaded shelter cold and end up on the list to die. Won’t you save VISERY’S life? He is so happy, sweet, cuddly and adorable. He wants only to be loved and comforted after his ordeal. He’s neutered and more than ready to find a committed, caring and responsible family. Hurry and MESSAGE our page or email us at [email protected] to foster or adopt this gorgeous little baby now. MY VIDEO: Viserys is the cutest cuddler <3 https://youtu.be/oMLfmwgozXg VISERYS, ID # 53127, @ 6 Mos. Old, xx lbs. Manhattan ACC, Large Mixed Breed, Black / White, Neutered Male I came to the shelter as a Stray, 1/21/2019 Shelter Assessment Rating: Medical Behavior Rating: 1. Green I CAME IN WITH: Daenerys 53126 (Female, has no pages yet) MEDICAL EXAM NOTES DVM Intake Exam. Estimated age: 1 year, based on PE. Microchip noted on Intake? scanned negative. placed by LVT. History: stray, found tied up outside. Subjective / Observed Behavior - BAR; allowed all handling. Evidence of Cruelty seen – none. Evidence of Trauma seen – none. Objective: BCS 5/9, EENT: Eyes clear, ears clean, no nasal or ocular discharge noted. Oral Exam: dc 1/5; pd 0/5, PLN: No enlargements noted. H/L: No murmur ausculted; CRT < 2, Lungs clear, eupnic. ABD: Non painful, no masses palpated. U/G: intact male. testicles are smooth and symmetrical. MSI: Ambulatory x 4, skin free of parasites, no masses noted, healthy hair coat. CNS: Mentation appropriate - no signs of neurologic abnormalities. Rectal: externally normal. Assessment: apparently healthy. Prognosis: excellent. Plan: ok for sx. SURGERY: Okay for surgery *** TO FOSTER OR ADOPT *** If you would like to adopt a NYC ACC dog, and can get to the shelter in person to complete the adoption process, you can contact the shelter directly. We have provided the Brooklyn, Staten Island and Manhattan information below. Adoption hours at these facilities is Noon – 8:00 p.m. (6:30 on weekends) If you CANNOT get to the shelter in person and you want to FOSTER OR ADOPT a NYC ACC Dog, you can PRIVATE MESSAGE our Must Love Dogs page for assistance. PLEASE NOTE: You MUST live in NY, NJ, PA, CT, RI, DE, MD, MA, NH, VT, ME or Northern VA. You will need to fill out applications with a New Hope Rescue Partner to foster or adopt a NYC ACC dog. Transport is available if you live within the prescribed range of states. Shelter contact information: Phone number [phone] Email [email protected] Shelter Addresses: Brooklyn Shelter: 2336 Linden Boulevard Brooklyn, NY 11208 Manhattan Shelter: 326 East 110 St. New York, NY 10029 Staten Island Shelter: 3139 Veterans Road West Staten Island, NY 10309 *** NEW NYC ACC RATING SYSTEM *** Level 1 Dogs with Level 1 determinations are suitable for the majority of homes. These dogs are not displaying concerning behaviors in shelter, and the owner surrender profile (where available) is positive. Some dogs with Level 1 determinations may still have potential challenges, but these are challenges that the behavior team believe can be handled by the majority of adopters. The potential challenges could include no young children, prefers to be the only dog, no dog parks, no cats, kennel presence, basic manners, low level fear and mild anxiety. Level 2 Dogs with Level 2 determinations will be suitable for adopters with some previous dog experience. They will have displayed behavior in the shelter (or have owner reported behavior) that requires some training, or is simply not suitable for an adopter with minimal experience. Dogs with a Level 2 determination may have multiple potential challenges and these may be presenting at differing levels of intensity, so careful consideration of the behavior notes will be required for counselling. Potential challenges at Level 2 include no young children, single pet home, resource guarding, on-leash reactivity, mouthiness, fear with potential for escalation, impulse control/arousal, anxiety and separation anxiety. Level 3 Dogs with Level 3 determinations will need to go to homes with experienced adopters, and the ACC strongly suggest that the adopter have prior experience with the challenges described and/or an understanding of the challenge and how to manage it safely in a home environment. In many cases, a trainer will be needed to manage and work on the behaviors safely in a home environment. It is likely that every dog with a Level 3 determination will have a behavior modification or training plan available to them from the behavior department that will go home with the adopters and be made available to the New Hope Partners for their fosters and adopters. Some of the challenges seen at Level 3 are also seen at Level 1 and Level 2, but when seen alongside a Level 3 determination can be assumed to be more severe. The potential challenges for Level 3 determinations include adult only home (no children under the age of 13), single pet home, resource guarding, on-leash reactivity with potential for redirection, mouthiness with pressure, potential escalation to threatening behavior, impulse control, arousal, anxiety, separation anxiety, bite history (human), bite history (dog) and bite history (other). New Hope Rescue Only Dog is not publicly adoptable. Prospective fosters or adopters need to fill out applications with New Hope Partner Rescues to save this dog.

#funny #lol #humor #memes #meme #memehumor #dank memes #funny pics #rolf #lmao #Being Alone #Andrew B

[dailyhealthynews]

23st woman too heavy for GP’s scales loses almost 150lbs on diet

A former 23rd party girl who “used to laugh at people who worked out” shared how her discovery of running dropped her to 10.5, which means friends with their ripped bodies on the street no longer recognize.

Sarah Day, 45, an IT service desk manager from Basingstoke, rose to 23+ stones after the loss of her beloved mother and ex-husband in 2014 left her in despair.

But when her doctor’s medical scale wasn’t high enough to record her weight in 2019, Sarah was embarrassed and referred to a local slimming club – and was soon bitten by the weight loss and exercise virus.

Sarah Day after losing weight. PA REAL LIFE / COLLECT

She previously wore a height of 26 at 5 “by 8” and had a BMI, or body mass index, used to measure a healthy weight of 49.1 compared to the healthy range of 18.5 to 24.9, which made them obese.

But now 12st 8lbs Sarah, who is single and has lived with her father David Day, 72, a retired engineer, since she split from her late ex-husband in 2012, describes her weight loss which has dropped to a height of 10-12 Dress size and a BMI of 26.6 as “life changing”.

She said, “I recently bought a size 10 dress, it was just the most incredible feeling.”

Sarah’s diet before:

Breakfast – nothing

Lunch – cheese rolls from the work canteen, chips packets and chocolate bars

Dinner – pizza with extra cheese, snacks like Deliveroo, Burger King or McDonald’s

Drink (on weekends) – six pints of Stella or white wine and shots

Exercise – none

She added, “Friends and family are blown away and people don’t recognize me on the street.

“I used to laugh at people who exercised and thought they were stupid – now I run four times a week and exercise almost every day. I’ll never be the way I was before. “

Tall and lean during most of her teenage years, Sarah started gaining weight as a young woman when she started eating and drinking anything she liked.

Sarah’s wake up call came in 2019 when she was too heavy for her GP’s scales. PA REAL LIFE / COLLECT

“I was always thin when I was younger, so I never thought I would gain weight,” she explained.

“I’ve always been tall – taller and taller – since I started gaining weight when I was 18.

“Before, I was really thin. Nothing made me gain weight. “

Sarah (center) with her friend, also called Sarah (in blue), with her friend’s sister Sarah Zoey (left) and her friend’s daughters Sarah, Abbie (right) and Georgia (second from left). PA REAL LIFE / COLLECT

Sarah was a sociable drinker and was also starting to party more with her friends around this time.

She said, “I went out a lot over the weekend and drank. I was a social drinker, but I drank a lot – wine, beer and shots. “

But the change in her figure did not bother the self-confident and popular Sarah.

Sarah after her transformation. PA REAL LIFE / COLLECT

“I didn’t mind being a big girl and I was pretty happy to be ‘Big Sarah’,” she said.

In 2000, at the age of 24, Sarah married her now deceased ex-husband, whom she would rather not name.

“I was size 16 when I got married,” she says. “I just gradually gained weight by eating what I liked and what I drank.”

Sarah after her weight loss. PA REAL LIFE / COLLECT

She added, “I ate the wrong things. I ate pizza the whole time – I just ate what I wanted. “

But the relationship didn’t last when the two split in 2012.

Tragically, Sarah’s mother, Nina Day, a catering business owner, died of ovarian cancer in May 2014 at the age of 68 – followed shortly afterwards by Sarah’s ex-husband in November of that year.

Sarah after losing weight. PA REAL LIFE / COLLECT

She said, “I’ve had a terrible couple of years losing my mother and ex-husband. We were apart, but it was just a really shitty time.

“He was a very big part of my life and it was a shock to go through it all in the same year.”

As she turned to eating to cope with her grief, Sarah admitted, “Since 2014 I’ve gained a lot. I didn’t care what I eat. “

Sarah before her weight loss. COLLECT PA REAL LIFE

She added, “I would eat a lot of cheese. I ate huge portions of whatever I wanted and I still drank a lot on weekends and evenings. “

Stacking brick on brick, Sarah’s wake-up call finally came in June 2019 when she was feeling down and in pain and booked an appointment with her family doctor.

“I’ve been to the doctors a few times,” Sarah said. “I just thought it was a little slip up.”

Sarah put on whatever she wanted to eat and drink. PA REAL LIFE / COLLECT

She added, “But I was on the scales and she couldn’t work out my weight. They were old-fashioned sheds that cut off – and I was too heavy. “

Given her size, Sarah knew she had to act.

She said, “I just came out and cried. I knew that if I didn’t do it for myself, nobody would help me. “

Sarah’s diet now:

Breakfast – a banana or two

Lunch – Ham and Low Fat Philadelphia Sandwich Dilution, a bag of low WW point crisps

Dinner – smaller portions of healthier meals like chicken fajitas, spaghetti bolognese, salads, or scrambled eggs and smoked salmon on low-fat bread

Drink (on weekends) – gin and tonic, in moderation or the occasional beer or glass of wine

Exercise – morning run of 5-6 km and midday hike of 4 km

For WW, formerly known as Weight Watchers, she was offered a free 12 week membership through the NHS.

She vowed not to put it off any longer, called that afternoon and went with him the next week.

She said, “There were like-minded people at different stages and I just thought I can do it.”

Sarah is now thrilled to have a dress size 10-12. PA REAL LIFE / COLLECT

When she started the diet where slimmer people track their food intake with WW points, Sarah’s original goal was to be 16 and wear a size 18.

“I would have liked to have worn a size 12 – but at that point it still seemed so far away,” she explained.

After months of monitoring her diet, Sarah gradually lost 4th place – although she initially refused to exercise and continued to enjoy some dinners and evenings with friends to save up her points for the weekends.

Sarah nearly lost 11th PA REAL LIFE / COLLECT

She said, “I haven’t told my friends and family anything other than a few close friends and my boss at work who was really brilliant.

“Before the lockdown. I didn’t want to train – I just wasn’t. “

But when others noticed changes, friends warned her not to tighten or risk sagging skin folds.

Sarah loves to exercise now. PA REAL LIFE / COLLECT

So, in February 2020, she bit the bullet and entered a gym – and discovered, to her shock, that she loved it.

She said, “It was across from my job and I thought it was a sign. Then, within weeks, they shut them all down because of Covid. It took me 45 years to go to a gym and within a month they were closed.

“I didn’t feel out of place and really was there – so I was gutted.”

Sarah on a hiking vacation with friends in the Lake District. PA REAL LIFE / COLLECT

When the pandemic lockdown the country, Sarah began exercising on an exercise bike and taking long walks in her father’s living room.

When the restrictions began to lift, friends joined her on 10 to 15 km hikes.

She said, “It was the only way I could see her, so everyone took turns walking with me.”

Sarah says her weight loss changed her life. PA REAL LIFE / COLLECT

Not drinking alcohol during the lockdown, as her father is not a drinker, also helped.

“I was a bit of a party animal before the lockdown, but it’s a little strange,” Sarah confessed.

“I made the decision to stop drinking in order to lose a little more weight, but I wouldn’t have wanted to drink alone during the pandemic.”

Sarah is walking with friends during the lockdown. PA REAL LIFE / COLLECT

When they returned to work after the first lockdown in September 2020, their colleagues were “amazed” at their transformation.

“I was in 16th place, but I wasn’t happy. I wanted more, ”she said. “I made the mistake about training.”

That summer, Sarah enjoyed personal workouts and returned to the gym – reaching a major milestone after losing 8th place.

Sarah was size 16 when she got married at 24. PA REAL LIFE / COLLECT

“The compliments kept coming back,” she laughed.

Sarah started running in the fall, when restrictions resumed.

Sarah’s doctor was astonished when she returned for an appointment in January 2021, soon to be regularly jogging five or six kilometers, four times a week and a total of six or seven times a week.

Sarah weighed 23 before her weight loss. PA REAL LIFE / COLLECT

She said, “I lost just under the 11th. The sister couldn’t believe it.

“I’m now a size 12 and WW says I’ve lost 10.5 pounds. I have reached my target weight and I feel amazing. “

Enthusiastic about her new, torn figure, Sarah no longer sees her eating habits as diet.

Sarah went for a walk with friends in Covid every day. PA REAL LIFE / COLLECT

“It’s a lifestyle choice – I have my goodies,” she said.

“WW changed my life. It’s something I’ll live with forever and I’ll never go back. “

She added, “I was just on a hiking vacation with friends in the Lake District, something I would never have done before.”

Sarah with an award from WW. PA REAL LIFE / COLLECT

But her newfound love for running has benefited her mental and physical health.

She said, “I love clearing my mind. It’s a breath of fresh air and my own thoughts. “

Now she’s so much happier, friends are pushing Sarah to get back on the dating scene.

Sarah with the daughters of her best friend Abbie (right) aged 17 and Georgia (left) aged 20. PA REAL LIFE / COLLECT

“Apparently I can go out now and find the man of my dreams!” She joked.

And Sarah might even show up on TV one day.

She laughed, “My friends always wanted me to apply to First Dates, and I’ve never felt so confident. Maybe I’ll think about it now in the future – who knows. “

Sarah is now excited to join the dating scene. PA REAL LIFE / COLLECT

But the biggest change of all lies in their happiness in themselves.

Sarah said, “I smile when I look at myself brushing my teeth now. I feel a great sense of achievement and it makes me so happy. “

Continue reading

On the subject of matching items

Continue reading

On the subject of matching items

source https://dailyhealthynews.ca/23st-woman-too-heavy-for-gps-scales-loses-almost-150lbs-on-diet/

[james-tiernan]

MAKING PERFORMANCE FINAL BLOG

RESEARCH Our research was hard to approach as our content was all based around ourselves. However, we decided to primarily focus our research on HOW we would go about delivering the piece and making sure we did it in a professional, well informed manner. All of the ‘Research’ we did around the characters was based on self-interviewing. We would just casually chat and pull-out separate moments we had experienced whilst also drawing similarities between our stories. However, briefly after the concluding what our final topic would be, I decided I needed to do some reading in order to properly understand how this process should be approached. Especially if we were including information and detail surrounding our personal lives. I picked out a book called “Telling the Truth, how to make Verbatim Theatre” by Robin Belfield. It offered many interesting insights in how to approach Verbatim theatre, especially for the first time. It also interestingly, had a section dedicated to ‘How to tell your own story’.  The book is littered with small exercises for groups to do to help their creative process. It’s also full of examples of other Verbatim plays which helped us collect examples of professional works within our given genre.  

“The collecting of information may continue right through until the performance, but obviously you will need to make early decisions for practical reasons – no actor is going to appreciate a massive addition of new or altered lines at the last minute!” Belfield, 2018, Telling the truth, How to make Verbatim Theatre, P19.

When we first started to accumulate information, we made sure to collate all material, in terms of potential scripted dialogue, first.  This gave us a chance to sieve through all the work we had got together and pick out the strongest most effective pieces. We also conducted some research into how the University deals with requests for therapy. Our research involved personal conversations between each other but also looking at what is in place in the university for our mental health. What we discovered was that the University and the therapists seemed to be doing all they could under the circumstances. Thousands of students attend Bath Spa, and we predict we are not the only people to have had issues adjusting to university. The University will offer you 3 free sessions and then move you onto further care provided by NHS. The waiting times on the NHS are unbearably long, and private care is extortionately expensive, especially by students’ standards. This leaves students feeling ‘alone’ and ‘uncared for’. We came to a conclusion however that this was not the fault of the NHS or the University directly. The sector is hugely underfunded.

“Health authorities have blamed a lack of funds for a rise of more than 600% in children and young people waiting too long for mental health services”- (BBC, 2019).  

This piece of research helped us decide on when we were going to set our piece. At first, we discussed setting it in modern day COVID 19 times. We wanted to highlight the struggle of therapists and their patients having to transfer to online meeting etc. However, when researching the system and its funding’s, we found that the problems with underfunding and understaffing started long before the COVID 19 pandemic was even a thing. After discussing this, we decided not to mention COVID at all in our piece. We would have to perform it online; however, we did not want COVID to become an excuse for the system not being given enough funds. “I say here ‘must’, rather than ‘should’, because the pursuit of the verbatim play is to reveal truths (as far as we are able), not to deal in gossip, rumour or hearsay”. -  Belfield, 2018, Telling the truth, how to make Verbatim Theatre, P79.

As said above, the aim of Verbatim theatre is not to turn it into a ‘slander fest’. Early on in the process, we were conscious of the fact that we had to be careful not to turn our piece into something that ripped the system apart. We agreed that we, as a group, can see that the Mental health sector is underfunded and a lot of the time, people are doing what they can with what they have been given. But we also agreed that it is still not good enough and we recognise that we should not have to settle for it. Nobody should. We came to the conclusion that we would approach the piece with words from both sides of the stories. The people who suffer because they cannot get the attention they need, the patients. Then also the workers and staff who are underfunded, overworked and understaffed. We would include dialogue from a therapist, played by myself. Then the other group members would collect material and dialogue from both themselves and out of some of the interviews they conducted. When talking about the subject matter, we understood that this may potentially be harmful to our own mental health by unlocking things that we weren’t quite ready to unlock

“Why now? Go back to the Important/Urgent Axis, but also acknowledge that now there is a personal connection you need to be sure that you are ready to investigate and perhaps even interrogate your own thoughts, feelings and actions” - Belfield, 2018, Telling the truth, How to make Verbatim Theatre, P19.

As Belfield said, we need to be sure that we are ready to unlock these memories and feelings. We made sure to set a few rules within the group to make people more comfortable with sharing such confidential information. For example, we made sure that there was an air of trust amongst the group. Anything shared in confidence that was not intended for script use would stay amongst the group members. Another measure put in place was that we wanted to exclude people’s real names from the piece. Some wanted to include information and text because they felt it needed to be aired and included in the narrative. However, the information being shared under their name made them feel slightly uncomfortable. Therefore, we agreed to change some character names and re-assign certain parts of dialogue to different characters. In conclusion, our research helped us develop an understanding of how to approach Verbatim Theatre. This is the first time all of us have developed a piece of Verbatim from scratch and although we have been thoroughly enjoying every step, we are happy that we decided to focus our initial research into the methodology and practise of Verbatim as a genre.  

REHEARSAL BLOGS

Rehearsal Blog 1: When we first sat down at our computer screens as a group, we struggled to come up with a Verbatim Topic that really grabbed us all as a group. Nothing seemed to jump out. We pondered over shared interests and experiences only to come to the conclusion that we should all go away and research some topics that interested us personally and grabbed our attention. Something to sink our teeth into and to maybe even eventually bring to life ‘on stage’. A week passed and we eventually sat back down and talked about what we had found. Everyone’s ideas were all so different. One member interviewed friends about past childhood experiences that they had shared in relations to abuse. Another group member interviewed their grandfather about loneliness and isolation, and I went away and found a heart-breaking story about a man who lost his brother in tragic circumstances. However, one member of the group, bravely, wrote about themselves. They managed to include poetry that they had written over the years of which they had been hurting. We all stopped to appreciate the thoroughly moving work we had listened too and had a long chat about how some of us had similar experiences. We talked about how we dealt with it and were referred through the university to speak to therapists. We talked for a few hours before deciding that maybe this was a topic for conversation within our piece. This then moved into seeming to take over the whole piece, making it centred around the personal dealings each one of us had with therapists. This is how we came about our topic. It was a very organic process and didn’t seem forced.

Rehearsal Blog 2: We started to unpack the dialogue and work that we had written in our Google Document and got to work on who would be taking up what role. We quickly decided that I would take the role of the ‘Therapist’ and the other members of the group would be the patients that I would see throughout one of my stressful days. Each session we would highlight a different problem that we as individuals had come across in and after our actual therapy sessions. We started rehearsing dialogue between the therapist and the various other patients quite soon after the text had been put into the document. This is where we hit our first big hurdle in the piece. The play seemed to be too robotic and repetitive. It would just be the therapist talking and then the patient responding. This was repeated 3 times and that was it. It wasn’t capturing anyone’s attention. We decided to try and mix up our method and approach. One group member mentioned that they had some more poetry they could include which was a good first step in the right direction. We then started to look at more abstract techniques we could incorporate. We talked of placards but eventually decided that the camera on our laptops may not focus onto the writing o the placards, thus leading to audience confusion and alienation. We kept the placard idea in mind, put it aside and moved on. We toyed with using an image collage but weren’t too sure on the possibility using this via a video sharing platform. We then very quickly moved to an audio collage instead. We agreed that it sounded plausible but didn’t want to just include something like this just for a reason of “adding some abstract content”.  We ended up running out of time and had to end the session. However before ending we came up with the task of coming up with some more ideas by next session. Ideas to start spit balling with instead of just starting the next session exactly how this one ended, with no ideas or pathways into new pieces for the production.

Rehearsal Blog 3: We all arrived back into the call a few days later and pooled all of our ideas together.  We also went over some of the ideas we brought up last week like the Placards and image collages. We decided that both of these ideas would come with too many possible errors, especially for online platforms. There was way too much room for error, so we decided to focus on new ideas that had been brought to the table. We talked over some of the new ideas, including music/song, live music/song, playing of instruments and a tableau. However, most of our ideas revolved around sound. We decided since most of us gravitated mostly to ideas to do with sound we would see where some of these ideas took us. One of the group members recalled a depressive episode they had once had where they had felt ‘numb’ and ‘the world seemed to stop spinning’. They said they recalled hearing noise but nothing specific. They said they felt increasingly anxious until the last second when they were snapped out of it by someone speaking to them. We decided to try and re-create this. We were also aware that we would have to be sensitive to not being too accurate in our recreation as this may have been quite challenging and harmful for the group member who had experienced this.  With their guidance we created a sound montage which depicted anxiety and confusion. A rising scale of sound, a constant ticking and heavy breathing all interrupted at its climax with “Hello?”. The therapist’s voice interrupting and re-engaging their attention. We agreed that this piece added a new, abstract dimension to the piece. It also fitted nicely and didn’t feel forced.

Rehearsal Blog 4: To start this rehearsal we ran through our piece with the tech team, pointing out cues for SFX, letting them know for what duration and volume we wanted for each sound. Just general tech things, they watched a small run through and then left about an hour into the call. We took a five-minute break and then started to look at what we thought was strong and what was not so strong about our current piece. When we reconvened, we talked about how we felt that the dialogue between the therapist and the patients was probably what was the strongest in the piece. It felt natural and was close to the dialogue that people had experienced when in the actual sessions with therapists. Meanwhile, when moving onto what didn’t work so well, we felt as if the start of our piece was probably the weakest. We agreed that the energy was slightly static. Everyone else’s cameras were off as other characters spoke their monologues. We agreed that although this did raise the theme of isolation, our piece needed to have something more than just dialogue to begin with. One of the members brought up how we could apply actioning to key words within the piece. For example, in one of the pieces they mention how they had a session with a therapist in a coffee shop. So, we transported ourselves to the coffee shop by all drinking out of mugs whilst listening to what the character was saying throughout their monologue. Another thing we did was listen to another character’s monologue about self-harm and how the doctor unfairly scrutinised and questioned them during their first ever visit. The rest of the cast would interrupt the monologue in the role as the doctor. We would ask questions such as ‘Show me” and prescribe them drugs instead of therapy.  When approaching my monologue as the therapist we found it difficult to think of moments in the script for the other cast members to interact with. In the monologue my character talks about his wife and children. We thought about and played with the idea of bringing these characters into the frame via the cast but felt it was forced and was not poignant enough to bring to life. It would have been too difficult to do correctly in such a small-time frame. We then played with a few more ideas before I asked myself “Why does the therapist have this monologue?” “What is his objective about speaking out?”. I came to the conclusion that the therapist just wants to be heard. He spends all his time listening to others when no one listens to him. Therefore, we decided that we would represent the fact that no one listens to him by getting him to read his monologue whilst all other characters had their cameras on whilst doing mundane life things. Making a coffee, brushing their teeth, doing a workout. They’re basically doing anything other than listening. This is how our play starts, the therapist tries to speak his mind for other to listen, but no one listens. He then spends the rest of the play listening to others only to find himself in the same situation as his patients as the play concludes. Struggling and Alone.

INSPIRATION

Throughout the course we have been fortunate enough to be able to access many plays and performances that had either moved online due to the pandemic or had already been intended for online audiences. When we first started work on the script together, we struggled with the concept of writing a play that was suited to an online platform. It was everyone’s first time doing it and I think that benefitted us. We were all very open to the influences and ideas that we had found elsewhere throughout the course.  Something we looked closely at for inspiration was ‘RihannaBoi’. We talked about how this piece played with various camera angles and seemed like it would only ever make sense if it was put online through a screen. We wanted our performance to be similar in this sense. We wanted it to feel as if it was meant to be put online and not just uncomfortably moved there. Cat used RihannaBoi as inspiration for her characters surroundings. We talked of how RihannaBoi’s camera quality was very grainy and that this added to his character and the piece as a whole. It made it seem more personal. It wasn’t filmed on some high-tech equipment. It felt real, straight off a flip phone. We noticed that Cat’s camera quality was not as grainy as the RhiannaBoi’s, so we played around with lighting and the angle of which Cat was sitting at compared to her window to help with this. We ended up with a low but visible lighting state that really pronounced a grainier camera quality. We thought this assisted with the realism of the piece and also helped reflect Cat’s sad and grey mental state. Another piece we looked at for influence was Love Letters from Home. Towards the end of our rehearsal time, Silva mentioned about looking at maybe adding in some music. We agreed that this could potentially add to the emotion of the piece but only if done correctly and tastefully. We toyed with the idea of adding songs to each of our personal monologues, something where the lyrics reflected what the character was feeling. After trying this, it all juts felt a bit forced and sometimes cliché. We then had a talk about the use of music and nearly gave up on it as a whole. However, I did mention on how like we saw in Love Letters from Home, music means so many things to so many different people. A certain song may make me laugh but Loic cry, it may make Martina remember but Cat want to forget. We decided to dig deeper and pick songs that were personal to us. After all, this piece was mostly all about our real experiences, so why not put a song that has real meaning over it. In the end we found that our pieces didn’t need songs. They were enough. The words of our monologues told the audience all they needed to know about our thoughts and feelings. The songs just added too much and drew us away from the impactful words. We did however keep one song in. The song “Another Love” by Grace Pitts was the song we chose to end the piece with whilst Loic’s character read out his suicide poem. This was a song that Loic described as his “sad song”. He said that he would put it on whenever he felt down. I feel we all have a sad song, whether it’s a song we associate with sadness or like Loic said, a song we like to listen to when sad, often ironically making you sadder. The music fitted so well with the dialogue and provided a great outro to the piece. I think it worked so well because it was so personal too, there was a sense of colloquialism between it and Loic’s piece.

EVALUATION

In all, I think that our piece went really well. I really enjoyed the whole experience of creating a piece of Verbatim Theatre. I felt that I learnt a lot about the style and practise of Verbatim Theatre, but I feel I also learnt an overwhelming amount about the topic that my group covered, The Mental Health system. I also really enjoyed watching and learning about other people’s topics too. In terms of strengths, I think that our performance really did well on its simplicity. We tried and tested many techniques such as placards, word collages, actioning and also physical movement. We just felt that none of them really worked and that the dialogue was so rich and heavy already that it didn’t need placards or word collages to help get the message across. The small number of techniques we did include seemed to fit the piece perfectly in my eyes. One example of this was the sound collage we made and used to symbolise a moment of ‘blankness’ which someone had talked about experiencing through their depression period. This was one that I was quite proud of. We made the collage from scratch, layering different audios over each other to help make a tense soundscape. There was a lot of trial and error, but we finally came up with a sound that we agreed was accurate to the feeling of the ‘blankness’ that had been experienced. Another strength of the piece for me was how personal it was and hopefully felt. We tried not to have too many cameras on at once. The maximum we had on at once was two cameras, often for the therapist and the patient scenes only too. We wanted this to help show our theme of isolation and how the problem and topic of mental health is often something that people struggle alone with. That was definitely the way we felt sometimes. You can receive all the help throughout the day, but in the night, or when you’re alone. It’s just you and your thoughts. In terms of things, I wish went better, I think I would have liked to incorporate more music into our piece. We included one track at the end of our piece but only because it felt right and had a personal connection to Loic and his character too. When reviewing other pieces, they seemed to have a lot of great music choices and they worked better than I thought they would. It worried me that they may have come across as cheesy or cliché, but they didn’t. Instead, they elevated the piece and sometimes the dialogue around it. It also helped convey lots of emotions and feelings without using lines and dialogue. I feel as an audience member, being able to digest the piece of music and then linking it to an emotion that the character is feeling on stage is a rather satisfying moment. You’re not being spoon fed the emotions with words, you’ve got to read between the lines. Examples of this could be seen in Charlotte Baldry’s groups Hiroshima piece. They used some lovely ambient music in the background of their scenes. The piece of music they chose was perfect in creating the mood, atmosphere and setting that was Japan. It had no words and was probably only a handful of notes played in a sequence and then repeated every 20 seconds on loop. It made me think about how we could have used an ambient sound track to fit our piece. Nothing with lyrics. Just music to help elevate the piece. My attention was also drawn to Sophie Thornton’s group and their story of 4 captured women in WW2. Their moments of torture were really well conveyed.. They made me feel uncomfortable and uneasy when they screamed, shouted and pleaded for help as the Nazi’s tortured them. They managed to accomplish this over screen too. In person, this would be hard enough. But doing it over the screen was a very noteworthy accomplishment in my eyes. It made me think, could we have lingered more on our uncomfortable moments. Cat and Martina both crying and asking my character not to leave were the moments that immediately sprung to mind. I think they could’ve been held onto and helped made the audience really feel just how horrible the situation is.

The Verbatim Theatre style has taught me things about theatre that I hope I will take further into my drama career. It has definitely helped expand my work in a dramaturgical sense. The depth of research needed was an eye opener. Not just research on the topic and character but also the style is crucial to ensuring your work is successful. Learning off others who have been through what you’re about to do was an important lesson I learnt whilst reading Telling the truth, how to make Verbatim Theatre. Another thing I learnt is safety within creating. The material we used to make this piece was very personal to the actors. It opened my eyes to how performing these topics can sometimes re-open wounds that people may have thought were already covered up and healed. I learned how important it is to look after yourself as an actor but also look out for your fellow actors within the piece too.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

-Belfield, Robin,2018, Telling the truth, how to make Verbatim Theatre, London, Nick Hern Books.

BBC (2019) Mental health: Funding blamed for six-fold rise CAMHS waiting list, available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-48702233. (Accessed: 28th January 2021)

[catalog-rays-on-a]

On October 17, 2019, I said goodbye to my beautiful Charlie Bear, the most loyal companion I've ever known and my sidekick of the last 15 years. He was at least 16 years old, probably more, when he finally left his tired, broken down body behind. In the days since, I have only wanted to hide away and grieve, but I also want to honor him, and to say what a special, joyful, gentle and incredibly loving friend he was. Charlie spent the first year or more of his life living on a 3 foot chain in someone's backyard in Charlotte, NC, where he was severely neglected and physically abused. My brother rescued him from that situation on Christmas day of 2004, while I was home visiting my family for the holidays. I had just finished the first semester of my MFA in Iowa, and had no intention of getting a dog then, or any desire to take on that kind of commitment. But there he was and he needed a home, so back to Iowa City he went with me. Charlie was very scared of people at first, but came to trust me quickly. I felt so badly that he had lived on a chain 24/7 that all I wanted to do was take him to the woods and let him run as far and as fast as he wanted to, but that meant first training him to go off leash without running away. We spent most of January 2005 in the shining winter stubblefields of Iowa's last season's corn, where he would gleefully run huge looping circles punctuated by razor sharp, lightning fast reversals and turns. He could change course on a dime; it was breathtaking to watch. I soon learned his running patterns were the sort you see sheepdog do, which made perfect sense; by all the best guesses, Charlie was a border collie/chow mix. When we graduated to off-leash hikes, whenever he would meet another dog, he would try to get them to herd him. He never wanted to be the herder, but he adored being chased and making other dogs run futilely behind him as he flew his ecstatic loops. Everyone who met Charlie fell in love with him. When we lived in Iowa City, even my poetry professors told me to bring Charlie to class, so everyone at Dey House got used to seeing Charlie wandering through the halls or curled under the table during workshop and seminars. Charlie traveled all over the country with me, and lived with me in 5 different states: Iowa City, Iowa; Exeter, New Hampshire; Houston, Texas; Bloomington, Illinois; Chicago, Illinois; and, for the last 4 years, Asheville, NC. He *loved* going in the car any chance he could get, and happily accompanied me on countless long drives between all of the aforementioned cities and Charlotte, NC for Christmas visits to my family. He would curl up in the passenger seat or in the back and not make a peep the entire time. Charlie's loves, besides our walks and hikes: He adored water and snow. The years we lived in Exeter, NH, the snow would be sometimes nearly to his chin, and he would fling himself into it with such joy, using his body like a snow plow, tunneling a trail to the woods with a giant grin on his face. When it was warmer, we'd spend hours walking in the forest there and he would splash through the bogs. Equally he loved the seaside, creeks, and rivers, and the tall, fragrant grasses of the Illinois prairie into which he'd disappear like a seal into the ocean. Charlie thrilled at autumn leaf-litter and loved snuffling through it, smelling all the damp smells. His paws smelled exactly like doritos, always; and sometimes like a campfire. He howled the most comically dramatic, prolonged, mournful wolf howl every time he heard a siren. He was the most laidback, undemanding, gentle dog I have ever known, happy to just lie around like a throw rug as long as he had me nearby. Charlie has been by my side through so many milestones; my MFA; the publication of my first book; the start of a PhD; a marriage; a divorce; and finally buying my first home this past March. I couldn't wait to get him into the new house and finally give him his own big backyard to play in; but when I finally did, I looked out at my boy and realized he couldn't even climb the hill. He wasn't enjoying the yard and playing, but only pacing back and forth from dementia, and he wasn't my young bear who could run for hours on end, but rather needed a ramp built just to get up the two stairs of the back porch. And I looked in his eyes and saw that he wasn't there anymore, and nothing brought him any joy; not even me.   Late this past Thursday afternoon, after a particularly pitiful and prolonged episode of his back legs failing— something he has been struggling with for a while but that's gotten increasingly worse the last few weeks— I dialed the number I have tried and failed to call so many times over the last few months, for a local companion animal hospice and euthanasia company. I had no idea they would be able to send someone out the same day for an assessment, but they did. The veterinarian arrived an hour and a half later. She examined Charlie and assured me it was time to let him go, that his dementia was very advanced and that his world had grown very small, inside of which he was alone and suffering. She offered that she could help him transition then, or come back another day. I knew I couldn't make that phone call again. As in a dream, unsure how I could possibly do any of the things that were next required of me, I made a big soft bed on the floor of my living room and the vet left us alone for half an hour. I lit some candles and lay down on the floor and pulled Charlie to my chest and held him in a bear hug for the next 30 minutes. I told him how dearly I loved him and couldn't imagine life without him, but that it was time for him to run free again, as far and as fast as he wanted to. Then the vet, one of the most compassionate people I have ever met, came back in and sat on the floor with us. She stroked his face and then my head that was buried in his fur where I was weeping. She asked if I was ready— I wasn't, nor could be, but he was ready and so I nodded— then administered the drugs and he was gone in a matter of minutes; swiftly and so peacefully. I never let go as his spirit left his body. I was holding him, and I felt it leave, but I don't know where it went. I would give anything to know, and to go there. Instead he'll be returned to me as ash, and a pawprint in clay, and I will learn how to live with this missing. Goodbye my beautiful boy, beautiful bear. I will love you forever. Forever, forever. Thank you for teaching me. 

[thewidowstanton]

Peter Groom, actor, choreographer and drag artist – Dietrich: Live in London

Peter Groom, who comes from Newcastle upon Tyne, graduated from the Guildford School of Acting in 2013, and has since worked both in the UK and internationally. His dance credits include One Side to the Other for Akram Khan Company, and his theatre work includes Romeo and Juliet and Adventures of Sherlock Holmes at the Aquila Theatre in New York. He was artist in residence at Battersea Arts Centre in London in 2014.

In January 2018 Peter launched his multi award-winning solo show, Dietrich: Natural Duty – co-written with and directed by Oliver Gully – which documents screen icon Marlene Dietrich’s life during the Second World War. It premiered at the Vaults in London before touring internationally, taking the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and Adelaide Fringe by storm. He has followed this with a cabaret, Dietrich: Live in London – accompanied by his MD Jimmy Jewell at the piano – which sold out at London’s Crazy Coqs, Live at Zédel in July and will return to the venue on 1 October 2019. Peter chats to Liz Arratoon.

The Widow Stanton: Did you always want to be onstage? Peter Groom: Yes, yes I did. I joined a youth theatre group in Newcastle when I was nine or ten and did plays and musicals with them until I was 17.

Was there anyone in your family in showbiz who inspired you? Er, no. [Laughs] My mum worked for the NHS and my dad used to work for Coca-Cola, but my grandma was very funny and very musical. She sang a lot but just with us as kids, you know, nothing… nobody performed professionally or anything.

So you don’t know where this urge came from? No, it just always seemed there, really. I remember the first time, it was in nursery, pre-school, I played Santa and I had to come down a chimney and pop out at the bottom. When Santa Got Stuck Up the Chimney, that was the song. I remember really clearly the room, and appearing from the chimney and everybody looking at me. And I remember where the lights were… that’s a really clear thing. I remember them all laughing.

You’ve appeared as a dancer; did your course at Guildford cover dance? We took ballet, jazz and contemporary, but before I went there I was really more interested in dance. I used to dance when I was a kid and then I went to Germany and was part of a show there called Sommertanz. That was with dancers from Pina Bausch Company. I’d never seen her work, I didn’t know who she was, and working with that company blew my mind because the dance I’d done up to then was all technique-based; a lot of ballet, and then her dancers were all about your expression and what you feel and what interests you and what you’re passionate about.

Suddenly that sparked more of an expression side and I thought, ‘Well, maybe dance isn’t right for me, maybe acting is much better’. So that’s why I trained at a drama school. But it’s funny, you know, the minute I left drama school I thought, ‘Oh, I want to dance again’. So I did and I went off and did a show with Akram Khan for a little bit, and then with some other companies, and I still make work that’s very dance based as a choreographer that I don’t perform in. It’s usually quite devised and working with a lot of text; usually half dancers and half actors.

You seem to have got international work very soon after graduating… I’ve been really lucky that I haven’t really been out of work a lot since I graduated, which is a really lovely position to be in. I stayed around In London for a few months after I graduated and then… I really love Germany. I lived there when I was 17 and when I graduated I thought, ‘I really wanna go there again’. I feel very at home there. So I went back to the school where I’d trained with dancers from the Pina Bausch Company – Folkwang Universität der Künste in Essen-Werden. I had a friend there and she said: “Oh well, just come and take class here in the mornings.” So I did, and an audition came up in Berlin. I went and I got the job in the show MEAT at Schaubühne, so I stayed there for about a year. It was wonderful. I loved it.  

Again you were artist in residence at BAC quite soon after that… Yes, I came back from Berlin and it came up… you could live there.

Oh yes, I’ve been on a backstage tour and seen the rooms. It’s marvellous! It’s amazing! They give you this space, and they give you a weekly budget to eat, and then you just make work all the time. Its wonderful; it’s like taking all the pressure off. You have time. I think I was there six months and you have time to let things develop and let you thoughts sit.

I would call your Marlene shows ‘female impersonation’ rather than drag, but how did you get into drag? It had been floating around for a while, I think. A few people had said: “Oh, you should really do it, because we think you’d be adept at it.” And then, I’m trying to remember, the first time was at BAC. A friend of mine had had a really bad year and he had a big Hallowe’en party and said: “Everybody has to come really full-out. Everybody has to get their great costumes on.” And I like Marlene Dietrich anyway, I have for years, and he said: “Oh, you come as Marlene because you’ll like that.” So I did! There were some photos, one got put on Facebook and then a woman called Tanith Lindon, who was the events co-ordinator at BAC saw it and said: “Oh, you look great! Come and host a New Year’s Eve party at BAC.” So I said, ‘Yes’.

And that was the start of it? That was the start of it, yeah, but it was little bits of cabaret. I’d never thought about making a show.

How had Marlene first come to your attention? I first heard her name through Vogue by Madonna; there’s that bit at the end where she raps all the Hollywood stars names, Garbo and Hepburn… and I went and looked them all up [laughs] and it was Marlene’s image that was really fascinating to me because she was cold… and distant… and aloof. This person that really didn’t coo… well, she wasn’t sweet or cute in any way. And as a teenager that really appealed to me.

When you were creating the show, did you study her mannerisms by watching her films? Well, I’ve seen all her films and read about 17… 18 books on her, newspaper articles and things like that, and then I think you have to forget all that and try to embody her without copying her. I never looked at footage and they tried to imitate her. I sort of tried to find where all these mannerisms came from. I mean, she just had the spine of a Prussian soldier. Everything pulled up, everything is tight, taut. Maybe towards the end that’s also because she was pinning her face in place so it looked younger, but it’s all these things that she has in her that are from her life experience. I was interested in that; both the illusion and what was behind it.

I’m really hot on costumes and must compliment you on your gown. Is it based on her famous ‘nude’ dress, designed by Jean Louis? Yes. It was made by a costume designer called Kathleen Nellis. She studied at London College of Fashion and graduated a few years ago. We’ve collaborated for a couple of years now; we have two dresses and a coat. When we first started making the show, before we wrote anything, before we thought what the story would be, the first thing we did was find out if we could make that dress. I feel similar to you, costume’s such a huge thing for me, particularly with that show. In the first two minutes when you see the dress and when you see Marlene, you have to be impressed, you have to go, ‘Oh my gosh, where did you get that?’. Because if you don’t have that you may as well throw the rest out the window. We need to be drawn in and dazzled.

It’s so fabulous! It’s so classy, and, well done, because too many people skimp on costumes. And I like Marlene too much to do that. It is, you know, a lot of beading backstage and a lot of time, but I think, ‘That’s good!’. And in a strange way it really gives you an insight into her. I played Edinburgh for the month last year and by week three, you think, ‘Gosh! Doing drag every day and painting this much and looking after the hair and looking after the dress, it’s a lot of work and it’s not much fun’. You just have to do it; it’s your duty to get it on and deliver the image of illusion every day. And it really took it out of me and I’d get a little bit annoyed sometimes. But then I thought, ‘She did this for 70 years, before she became a recluse’. The amount of perfectionism and will it must have taken to maintain that image is extraordinary. But there’s nothing I do in the dressing room that she didn’t do; probably just as much make-up, just as many support garments.

We haven’t mentioned your wig. Did you have it specially made? Yes, by Jack James Baxter at Wig Chapel. They’re based in Whitechapel.

How long does it take you to put on the make-up and everything? From nothing to everything, about two hours. It’s a long time but it is a lot of layers and stuff because the make-up isn’t exaggerated. It’s not really ‘drag’ make-up. It’s very clean, so it needs to be very clean.

Let’s talk about Dietrich: Live in London… Live in London is based on her Vegas cabaret show, really, and her subsequent cabaret shows around the world. It came about because I really love Zédel; I love that space, it’s so beautiful. They had asked me to come and do Natural Duty there, but Natural Duty, really it’s a play. It has aspects of cabaret in it and there are songs but it’s a story with a narrative that you follow through, and I thought, ‘The space at Zédel is so cabaret, you can get drinks with people serving throughout and that wouldn’t be good for Natural Duty. I don’t think it would work, so I said, ‘I’m not sure’. And they said: “Make something else, maybe make a new cabaret.”

And actually there was loads of things I wanted to do that didn’t fit with Natural Duty, loads of songs… ‘I’d love to do that song but it doesn’t fit’. So I wanted to make an evening that felt glamorous and take that class idea and see if I could make a very… I didn’t know of anyone else who just stands there and sings songs, without any joke, you know, when the drag isn’t a joke. So, yes, I think it’s that. It’s glamorous, it’s fun and it’s the first time I’ve done the tuxedo, which is really exciting.

Have you found any footage of those concerts she gave later in life? There’s only her show at the Queen’s Theatre in London that was recorded for television but that’s more of a recital. She doesn’t do the tails, she doesn’t do any of that stuff. There are a few clips… she used to have a kickline at the end of her cabaret show… the girls would come on and do little tuxedo-Fred Astaire kickline, there are clips of news footage of that.

So the songs you sing are the songs she sang in her concerts? Yes, the only one she didn’t that I sing is Top Hat, White Tie and Tails.

And there’s no patter in this one; it’s song, song, song. Is that what she did? She did do that, yeah. Sometimes there’s a little bit of introduction… ‘A song by Charles Trenet’, there’s a little bit of narrative based on her coming to America.

Will you be touring Live in London? Yes, we’ve been asked to perform it at the Sage in Gateshead, which is great. It’s amazing to be asked to play a concert hall like that. And also it’s home for me. That’s going to round off the year.

Is Marlene taking up most of your time or are you managing to fit in other work? No, it mostly Marlene.

So you’ve got to spend those hours getting ready all the time. I like her and to not have the pressure of the narrative that’s in Natural Duty and to just enjoy and sort of play with the audience in London has been really great. I’ve got to say I was really terrified the day of the first Zédel show. I thought everyone would be bored. There’s no story, they’re just gonna… they’re just gonna leave! So I was so thrilled that it was received so well. It was a great night. It’s such a nice energy in that room.

You’ve won loads of awards with Marlene, which stands out? We won Critics’ Choice at the Adelaide Fringe. Marlene was in Adelaide 50 years before we were there, strangely, and her tour manager, Ron Tremaine, who organised her Australian tours, came to see the show. He’s 80-something. He was incredible and stayed with us afterwards and he talked and told us stories about her, showed us photos of them together. That was really extraordinary and very touching. It’s fascinating when you meet people who knew her as a human person and not just the illusion, people who see behind that. He wanted to know how we made the show, and he really loved it, which was really kind.

Is there anything else you’d like to say about her? I guess, back to the drag thing, it’s funny because a lot of people see the show and then they tell me: “Oh, but it’s not a drag show,” which I really like. That was a real aim with Natural Duty; how do you do a drag show that isn’t a joke and isn’t demeaning to the man playing it or the woman who it’s representing? I have a lot of admiration for her and particularly her work for peace in the world. That’s an incredibly timely message now, you know. Everybody has a platform to promote themselves, to promote how good they look or whatever it is. What she managed to do was link that and a stance for peace. If we all did that the world might be a better place.

Peter performs Dietrich: Live in London at the Crazy Coqs, Live at Zédel in London on 1 October, and Dietrich: Live in Gateshead at the Sage on 18 December 2019. He will be touring Dietrich: Natural Duty again in 2020.

Picture credit: V’s Anchor Studio; vintage Marlene holding papers, with thanks to Andrew Davidhazy For tickets to Dietrich: Live in London, click here

And for Dietrich: Live in Gateshead, click here

Peter on Facebook

Twitter: @_petergroom

Follow @TheWidowStanton on Twitter

Read the story behind Andrew Davidhazy’s picture of Marlene, which he took as a schoolboy!

#peter groom #marlene dietrich #showbusiness interview #dietrich: natural duty #dietrich: live in london #cabaret #Crazy Coqs #kathleen nellis #wig chapel #live at zedel #drag artist #battersea arts centre #sage gateshead

[thepanicoffice]

The Life & Exhaustive Works of Richard O. Jones - Part II

[...]

Chapter V: Untold Riches (or, The Lost Years)

In 2014, Jones came into the third of his seven inheritances. He invested heavily in Lego, amassing a collection to rival that of the Sultan of Brunei.

It was at this point that he made a calculated move into the political arena. Becoming the MP for Wenchlett North with exceptional ease, despite having never lived near, visited, or even mentioned the Northumbrian town. During his time in Parliament he helped to improve the working conditions of librarians – an act for which he receives little recognition by the Librarians Guild of the UK – and calculated a new tax policy that had the undesired effect of making domestic products, such as corn and beef, too expensive to actually be harvested. He was also an advocate for returning to the gold standard, stating that “Every man should be able to build even the most minor fortifications with his own personal wealth. One could scarcely gather together a coherent nest if one possesses only bank-notes, and such a thing would be ludicrous”[1].

This career, like all his others, was to be short-lived. He was soon dismissed from office for using a ceremonial cannon to mix alcoholic beverages in. Embarrassed, he fled to Morocco, where he became chief of a Bedouin tribe for a spell. Finally, in 2015 returned to England, destitute and addicted to citric fruits and Elm-bark.

His ignoble return was heralded by a ballsy, if incoherent, letter to me, which read as follows:

Maslin, you pisswhiskered cad!

I am returning. Be ready at once and let me fulfil you sexually.

Ensure the larder is stocked with bergamot oranges – I have developed a keen taste for them. I will suck the sharp, bitter seeds from your bellybutton!

Fear me! Love me!

Yours, in zesty, erotic longing,

R.O. Jones

He returned and, after a restraining order and several payments, the threat of erogenous interference was lifted.

_____________________________________________________ 

Chapter VI: A Foray into Health

At around the same time that I received a promotion at the British Medical Association, Jones predictably decided to purchase a medical licence from a dubious Hawaiian university and illegally set up practice as a doctor. He initially specialised in acute internal medicine and gastroenterology, before changing completely to urological surgery – a move he explained simply in a letter to a friend, saying “slicing up penises makes me unaccountably happy”.

His contributions to medicine in this period were not so much contributions as detractions. Some conservative critics estimate that during his brief occupation as secretary to the Surgeon General he set modern medicine back at least 20 years. The ever-scathing critic J.P. Scritchling goes so far as to say that, were it not for his involvement, the Zika virus would have been wiped out some time in the early 2015.

Perhaps mercifully, he retired from medicine only a few months after he had first started, but not before claiming a very lucrative pension from the NHS.

_________________________________________________________

Chapter VIII: The Age of Omar

In March 2015, tiring of his bachelor lifestyle, Jones decided to alleviate the inevitable loneliness that attends the superwealthy by acquiring a dark black feline companion. This was Omar, a mild-mannered, sweet-natured puma, who Jones won from a big game hunter in a drink-fuelled round of partnership whist.

Omar was to become Jones’ closest companion, in many ways the closest thing to a true friend and a competent financial advisor that he ever had. Together, they whiled away long evenings smoking cigars, drinking brandy, and sharing tales of the Orient. Jones’ long-time housekeeper and occasional lover, Susan, also grew especially fond of Omar, treating the puma like the child that Jones had so consistently refused to give her.

_________________________________________________________

Chapter VIII: Shouting at Cripples and Early Retirement

Having been visited one night by three ghosts, Jones found himself racked by a strange gnawing feeling. Doctors later confirmed that this affliction was a sense of guilt. In an effort to rid himself of it, he took a position with a disability charity in Brighton. He found this work incredibly fulfilling, later saying to a tribunal, “bellowing at cripples until they sort themselves out a bit is hard work. How fortunate I am that my hobby is now also my job!”

His diligent service was never properly recognised by his employer, an inveterate alcoholic and practitioner of witchcraft G. Mumblewasp. The two feuded horribly before this acrimony was cut short by her untimely spontaneous combustion. Shaken by the death of his nemesis, he briefly fled the country, before realising that the police had recorded a verdict of accidental death. He then entered into early retirement.

In emulation of his long-time hero Tony Blair, he toyed with the idea of a return to the political sphere. Inspired by the shock Brexit vote of 2016, he decided to stand as a prospective parliamentary candidate for the Panic Party[2] and push for a referendum on ending what he described as “the nation’s decadent over-reliance on paperclips”.

Ever a moth that strays within flirtatious proximity of a flame, he was taken into custody for ballot tampering. Prima facie, the Crown’s case against him is a damningly robust one: he was found at the wheel of a van full of postal votes originally bound for Kettering, where Mr Jones was standing. Given that he was stopped driving at full speed toward the precipice of Beachy Head, some 150 miles away, his defence of ‘post-election stroll’ fell on understandably deaf ears.

As such, for several weeks he remained at Her Majesty’s Pleasure (and, knowing the incorrigible rascal as I do, I’d venture to say at Her Majesty’s Utmost Satisfaction) until he was able to pull together enough funds to enlist a stout defence counsel. Fortunately, they soon spotted the key to his extrication. Due to an unusual and poorly worded Kettering byelaw, an individual can only be prosecuted for ballot tampering in the event that they have done successfully and won the election. So rare is it that a person who rigs an election manages to finish, as Jones himself did, only a distant third place, that the rule evidently failed to apply to his foray into the world of electoral fraud.

In spite of his exoneration, he nevertheless made a bewildering and unnecessary attempt to escape the prison at HMP Crudswill. Some days after the audacious breakout[3], Jones was seen doggy-paddling away from the coast of Zanzibar with a waterproof briefcase clenched between his grizzled teeth. He returned to his Brighton home some weeks later, having remembered that he had a lecture on Clive of India to deliver at the British Museum.

_________________________________________________________

Chapter IX: The Complete Life

As biographer-elect, I find myself in the difficult situation of needing – of necessity – to outlive my subject. No biography worthy of the name should be considered complete while the subject yet has anecdotes to live through; while there are still events in the life to come, so too must there be ink in the quill. And yet, I have no hope of outliving him by natural means. Mine is a weakened constitution, subsiding as I do on a wholly inadequate diet of unidentifiable meats, sugar paste, and miscellaneous proteins. Conversely, he is in rude health, owing perhaps to the many years he has spent eating only poached eggs. Therefore, I find myself in the unusual position of being obliged to end my subject’s life, to ensure that this chronicle remains exhaustive, definitive, and complete.

On what I will optimistically describe as the last night of his life, Jones returned from visiting friends in Charing Cross to his Brighton home. The door (a forbidding ivy green slab) has been closed and the latch clicked. I have seen a light go on in what, based on my previous attempts to break in, I believe to be his study.

Red, animal details, such as the trajectory of the bullet, the biogeographical location of the entrance and exit wounds, etc., etc., shall be fleshed out in the fullness of time. Assuming the gaol or prison (however it pleases Her Majesty) in which I will find myself following my arrest will supply me with paper and pen then I hope to have the final chapter concluded within a few months. But, dear reader, please rest assured that whether scrawled in a cell or spat down from a black thundercloud on high, I will conclude this biography - The Life and Exhaustive Works of Richard Owen Jones, to preserve his wretched existence and stand in his judgment eternal.

I have loaded the gun. Wish me luck.

_______________________________________________________

Chapter X: After the Murder

Publisher’s note: We have yet to receive the final chapter of this book. The author was last seen entering the home of Richard Jones on the 11th May 2019. Has not been heard from again.

________________________________________________________

[1] Amis Feckbat, Obscure Matters of Parliament: 2014-15, [2nd Ed.] (Avon: Occiput Publishing, 2016), (p.709)

[2] Slogan: “Bewildering policies for a bewildered electorate”

[3] Confidential reports suggest that he persuaded two washerwomen to dress as prison guards and smuggle the head warden out under some clothes, while, in the sheer confusion, he walked quite serenely through the back door.

#Maslin #Editor #Richard Jones #Deputy Vice Editor #Vile Calumny #Biography

[warninggraphiccontent]

26 April 2019

InCiSE-ive analysis

Which country has the world's most effective civil service? The latest International Civil Service Effectiveness Index (InCiSE), a collaboration between IfG and the Blavatnik School of Government with support from the UK civil service, was published yesterday and has some of the answers. It also has lots of interactive charts and the data behind them. I'm really pleased to have played a small part in the project - I think it's a great example of how data can enable the right conversations (we know an index can never be definitive, but it's prompted lots of talk about which countries should be learning what from elsewhere and what else would be worth including).

I think it's also a great example of a much-maligned chart type - radar charts - being used to convey data very clearly (here's a version from me). I'll write a short post on that soon (I already have some dreadful radar-related puns lined up, but further ones welcome). In the meantime, you can read a quick summary by me; an excellent comment piece from Blavatnik's Calum Miller on how the UK did so well despite, well, you know; a report from Civil Service World; and the report itself, the technical details behind it and some case studies of how the InCiSE framework could be applied to countries not included in the index. The 2017 version is here.

Elsewhere... Owen Boswarva took exception to DCMS describing data as 'fuel' (though I've definitely found myself accidentally calling it that from time to time...). It reminded me that Rachel Coldicutt started a spreadsheet to record such data metaphors. And that the ODI's strategy has some useful 'scenarios'. And that we once idly came up with some at the Institute, moving from data mining and data wrangling to data gardening (it's a wild world out there, you choose what to cultivate and how to landscape it) and data carpentry (you start with a big block of the whole world and then plane and shave it down, I think). I actually can't remember if we made all of those up or if we genuinely saw them somewhere.

It's just a few days until our next Data Bites event, which should (like the last one) be great fun as well as extremely interesting. Come! (And put Tuesday 4 June in your diary for the next one.)

Somebody said to me a few weeks ago that my hometown is only ever on the news when there are vox pops on Brexit to be conducted or something bad has happened. I'm therefore very relieved this morning that this wasn't a lot worse.

And I think, remarkably, that's the only mention of Brexit in this week's newsletter. Let's see how long that lasts...

Gavin

Today's links:

Graphic content

USA

Explore a detailed view of the Mueller report (Axios)

It's been at least five minutes since a bar chart race so here's one on Democratic candidates for president (Google Trends)

Everything's deadlier in the South (Axios)

Why you should never start a trade war with an autocracy* (The Economist)

Who’s Running for President in 2020?* (New York Times)

Elections

Spain's general election 2019: all you need to know (The Guardian -problem solved?)

Where are local elections taking place in England? (House of Commons Library)

Walt domination

Disney Faces Fresh Criticism After Heir Calls Iger’s Pay ‘Insane’*(Bloomberg)

Every Company Disney Owns (The Big Picture)

#dataviz and #ddj

The Upshot, Five Years In* (The Upshot)

Preview: The 20th Century in Infographics (May 2019) (Sandra Rendgen)

A very strange chart? (via Eric William Lin)

How we mapped rent affordability using the Ordnance Survey’s Open Zoomstack map tiles (BBC Visual and Data Journalism)

Everything else

Rich nations urged to prepare workers for age of automation* (FT)

Which countries eat the most meat? (BBC News)

What the Airbnb surge means for UK cities (BBC News)

Ministerial directions (IfG)

Sport

Can anyone break Alan Shearer's Premier League goals record? (BBC Sport)

The Premier League teams’ ineptitude index 2018-19 (The Guardian)

Meta data

Leadership

UK fails to fill role of national statistician* (FT - my take, Will's less critical though not contradictory one)

Pleased to see statistical leadership will be the focus of a systemic review by @UKStatsAuth as outlined in the new Office for Stats Regulation business plan (via Hetan Shah)

Long reads

The Fragmentation of Truth (danah boyd)

The Real Stars of the Internet* (New York Times)

One country blocks the world on data privacy (Politico)

Location

How can we bring transparency to urban tech? These icons are a first step. (Sidewalk Talk - although..., and indeed...)

Is data literacy being taken seriously enough in the UK? (diginomica)

Why Google Maps and Citymapper are terrible for walking directions*(Wired)

Geospatial Commission making geospatial data more accessible(Geospatial Commission - though as Owen Boswarva points out, one of its partner organisations is missing. This one)

AI, algorithms, automation

Western AI researchers partnered with Chinese surveillance firms* (FT)

A new alphabet for Europe: Algorithms, big data, and the computer chip(Brookings)

WE’VE BEEN WARNED ABOUT AI AND MUSIC FOR OVER 50 YEARS, BUT NO ONE’S PREPARED (The Verge)

Removing unnecessary processes the right way (MoJ Digital and Technology)

Complex automation won't make fleshbags obsolete, not when the end result is this dumb (The Register)

Some AI just shouldn’t exist (Vox)

This thread has quickly become a really great discussion on AI and government in history (via Michael Veale)

Everything else

What does it mean for NHSX to be an ‘open source’ organisation?(Technology in the NHS)

China’s unchecked expansion of data-powered AI raises civic concerns*(FT)

On openly publishing government algorithms (via Tom Forth)

You can lead a person to data, but you can't make them use it (Nesta - discussion here and here)

Government immigration database 'deeply sinister', say campaigners(The Guardian - although...)

The only way to rein in big tech is to treat them as a public service (Nick Srnicek for The Guardian)

Opportunities, etc

ODCamp is looking for a London venue (ODCamp)

JOB: Senior policy adviser, National Data Strategy (DCMS)

WORK: Help DfT scope out a data strategy (via Giuseppe)

OPPORTUNITY: Applications for @DataSciCampus sponsorship for UK public sector analysts to undertake the MSc in Data Analytics for Government starting in the 2019/210 academic year are now open (via Dave Johnson)

And finally...

Logos

Ranking UK Parties Logos (Election Maps UK, via Marcus)

Lost logos of the London Boroughs (@LCCmunicipal)

TV

32 Game of Thrones Data Visualizations (Jeffrey Lancaster, via in other news)

The Man Who Solved ‘Jeopardy!’ (FiveThirtyEight, via Tess)

Everything else

Perception (Steve Stewart-Williams)

The price of fish (via Devin Pope)

More Amazing Cutaways Of London Underground Stations (Londonist)

How did the qwerty keyboard become so popular? (BBC News)

Queen Elizabeth II just turned 93 years old. See her banknote evolution.(Norbert Elekes)

[atomicpenguindreamer]

Early April 2020

When I looked at my wristwatch, it struck 9:45. I was getting late for the evaluation centre which was some distance away from where I lived. I was in my formals as a teacher should be, but my elbow crutches were not complimenting my good dressing and didn't allow me to walk at the normal pace so I stood on the sidewalk. Though I waited for a taxi for a while, I couldn't get any. My only option was hitchhiking and that always worked because 'people are kind'. Seeing a young man with crutches, unable to walk, looking meek, everyone would want to help. That was the best thing being on the crutches, one could get all the attention, whether wanted or unwanted. I just gave a wave at a passing biker, he stopped and helped me hop on the back seat and then we drove off.

"Thank you so much," I said while he helped me get down from the backseat. The biker gave me a wide smile and went. It was still two to ten, I felt relieved that I reached in time.

Army Public School, a modern structure and the evaluation centre for class x aisse, was located in the middle of Allahabad Cantonment, surrounded by symmetrically planted trees and beautiful gardens. The best place to send your children for education is in the city.

I showed the guard my relieving order and headed to the exam department to execute the evaluation work. We were a team of twelve evaluators and a head examiner to supervise the whole process. As we were evaluating the answer book assigned to us, I saw somebody entering the room wearing a smile on his face. The head examiner greeted him and started talking about how good/poor the students did in the exam and the usual teacher's stuff. I knew that man too, he was employed at the same school in the second shift where I worked but never interacted before. We just knew each other's names. After talking a bit with the head examiner he came to me and wished me morning, I also wished him with reverence. He saw me with the crutches before in the school, so it was an obvious question that how  I managed to come there as finding a ride was difficult in the cantonment area. I told him all that I did earlier in the morning and when I finished he proposed that I could come with him. He would pick and drop me from my rented apartment. I hesitated to accept it but I had to, cause there were no other options and hitchhiking was not a great idea in that condition of mine. I agreed to the arrangement.

Mr Akash Rastogi, yes that was his name. He was in his early forties, short height, lean, grey short hair parted from left to right, spectacled nose, trimmed stubble and crooked body. He suffered 'Hemiparesis'.

Lemme give you a brief idea about Hemiparesis. The most obvious symptom of hemiparesis is the partial paralysis of one side of the body. Symptoms correspond to the side of the brain or spine that has been damaged. An injury to the left side of the brain typically results in weakness on the right side of the body. An injury to the right side of the brain typically results in weakness on the left side of the body. Hemiparesis caused by a stroke or many other countless reasons makes you completely or partially paralyzed.

Due to partial paralysis, he could not move the affected right side of the body efficiently. Paralyses twisted his wrist, leg, and face, yet he smiled and treated everyone with a happy face. He could walk without crutches and use a four-wheeled scooter, especially designed, to go to work and regular places. This was the reason I hesitated in the first place to take help from him. But as I agreed, I dressed and went to the supposed place to wait for him. He seemed happy enjoying my company rather than being lonely in the centre.

People always asked about how I ended up with crutches who met me after a very long time. And every time I had to tell them about that horrific accident which took place in late June 2019. I was returning from my village through NH 27 on my Royal Enfield 350 classic at an average speed of 80 KMPH. It was more or less six in the morning. The highway, less trafficked, gave me more space to drive at the speed I wanted. On one of the sharp curves, when I was at slightly less speed than before, a stray ox dashed from the so-called garden in the middle of the highway and bumped directly into me. That was a great collision, I blacked out for a fraction of seconds. When I regained consciousness, I was skidding on the road on my right side and my bike was behind me. Some bikers on the highway saw the accident and came to the rescue. They helped me get on my feet but I couldn't put pressure on my right leg. Somehow I managed to go under the shed of a tree with their help. They asked me whether I was ok. finding the affirmative answer, they all went on their journey. I was alone under the tree shade. I could see some daily wagers working on drainage. I called one of them and asked him to arrange a chair for me. My legs hurt, I couldn't bear the pain. Anyway, When seated on the chair, I dialled my brother to tell him about the accident. He knew what to do. He told my uncle and they dashed outside with my cousin and a childhood friend to reach me as soon as possible. Almost sixty km was to be covered and that would take time. The pain increased higher and higher by every single minute. I dared to take off my high ankle shoes, first I undone the laces slowly and completely removed them from the eyelets. My ankle felt numb after so much pain and swelling. I carefully lifted my leg and held it in a fixed position then slowly slid off the shoe by the heel. I took off my socks too to have a closer look at my broken ankle. There were no bruises at all, no bleeding, no cuts but my toes, they hung inwardly like zero degrees on a line and could not reach up to ninety degrees at all. My anxious uncle, brothers and my friend reached the place where I was desperately waiting for them, deliberately hiding all the pain from my face so that they would not panic. They took me to the hospital and the doctor did a couple of check-ups and X-rays and said I broke my fibula severely and needed to be operated on. The operation was successful. I now had seven implants fixed in my ankle and I could no longer walk properly until it heals and this way I ended up with the crutches.

The next morning I woke a bit later than usual as the problem of reaching the centre was sorted out. I dressed up as usual and made myself available on the other side of the main road. Mr Akash reached on time and picked me up. Evaluation work for the day was over and I was waiting for him to come so that we both could go together to the vehicle stand. My curiosity was killing me, pushing me to feed it up with some answers. But asking about these things was hard and sometimes people got annoyed. I had to be very careful when and what question to ask him. We were back on the four-wheeled scooter, he asked me the same question.

"How did you break your leg?"

I answered this question so many times that I could easily tell it to anyone without putting too much into my mind. I told him all the story and in exchange for the answer to the question he asked, I queried about my question.

"How did you end up like this?"

He sighed and was reluctant to answer but he had to fulfil my inquisition cause I quenched his.

"I wasn't born this way," he replied with a sigh.

"Then what happened to you? I asked.

"Avi, There are some pages in your personal diary that you never want to open and read again. Sometimes you just want to move on and that is a great thing to do. But there is a catch, the more you avoid remembering the past, the more it comes in front of you. You just can't move on when the cruelty of life becomes harsh and despotic and not letting you go away with it." The voice seemed gloomy. We said nothing for approx. 20 minutes.

Then he said, "Oh! we reached, I will see you tomorrow."

We parted and he left for his home. I was left thinking about what he meant by saying all those things. I was eagerly waiting for the next day to come soon as I couldn't wait to listen to his story.

The next morning I got him waiting for me on the roadside, he reached early. I waved 'Hi' and he smiled. On our way to the centre, I wanted to ask him about what those words referred to but refrained myself from doing it because we had a day ahead with loads of work to complete and I wanted both of our heads on chill mode.

When we were on the road again, before I asked anything, he said "Tomorrow is off for us so we can enjoy some coffee on our way." I was delighted to hear that. Even I missed going outside with someone having coffee or tea. He pulled up at a coffee shop, less crowded and perfect for us to talk. I ordered two cups of latte for us. Sipping and relishing the hot beverage, I said to him " I didn't understand what you said yesterday. What did you mean by that?"

He composed himself and said, "As I told you I wasn't born this way, I had a normal childhood, storming adolescence and a great youth age afterwards. I was as normal as you have been before your accident". He continued.

"Summer 2012, after the break, the school reopened and as any other employee would say that he didn't like to rejoin after a long vacation, I was also unwilling to go to school. But a job is a job and I was happy that I was able to see the happy faces of the students again. Everything went well until 6th period, then suddenly I felt a jolt, a tremor in all my limbs. I couldn't feel neither my legs nor my hands and my head was going to explode. The book I carried in the right hand and duster in the other, fell on the ground as I lost all the strength to have a grip on them. I collapsed then and there. . The air around me felt so thin that my lungs couldn't take it in and I was gasping for air as I couldn't breathe. My body felt as if it was made of rock. I couldn't do anything, couldn't even call for help. But fortunately, I was in the school lobby and senior students were passing towards the chemistry lab. They found me grounded lifelessly. They took me to the staff room and put me on a chair. I quickly got admitted to the hospital. The doctor said the attack had severely damaged some brain cells that resulted in Paralysis. He had given me medication and an exercise guide to perform daily and said that if I follow the medication and the exercise, I could see some improvement. But a part of me knew that It was never going to be the same again. Even though I followed everything very religiously, I couldn't see much improvement. I couldn't get better."

I could feel his pain. But you can never say where the shoe pinches unless you wear them yourself. I knew that the story ahead was not going to be cheerful yet I had to hear it. He took a swig of latte and pushed himself to tell me the rest.

"Expectation hurts and it hurts more when you are turned down by someone you love, someone you spent three fucking years of your life with. Someone you think you would never get betrayed by. Life is both happy and sad, soft and harsh. And you have to accept it. Yeah! Avi, I am talking about my wife.

"I got married in 2009. We were a very normal, happy couple, and had two kids, a son and a daughter. Every happy thing I could desire for, I had. And then this attack happened and everything went topsy-turvy for me. All my happiness turned to something which I could never wish to linger on. All my zeal and enthusiasm for life had become pale and passive. That one stroke in the past had changed every single minute of my future."

"Regular daily routines, like using the toilet, brushing teeth, shaving, bathing, putting on underwear and trousers, buttoning up my shirt and cuffs, combing and even eating stood in front of me like some cliff to climb on and I couldn't do it though I had all the equipment (out of order actually) needed. But I didn't let my anxiety take over me. I had a very understanding wife. She helped me with almost all the stuff I had difficulty with. Life went average, not bad, not good. And then I started noticing something. My wife, who was helpful and understanding in the beginning, acquired a completely ruthless attitude. She seemed fed up and always blamed me for my little physical improvements. She now engaged herself more in the care of my children than to waste time on me. Over time She became more indifferent than ever. Although I had a family, I was completely alone in this world."

"Every morning I had to tussle with getting ready for school. Toilet, my worst nightmare came true, traumatized me more than anything. As my right wrist was twisted in a way that I couldn't use, I tried to reach the bidet nozzle with my left hand to clean up. For that I had to bend my body slightly to the right side, not too much otherwise the poop would stain the toilet sheet and I would be left with some more work to deal with. Reaching down there was another problem as I was more accustomed to using it with my right hand. Anyway, I dealt with those problems daily. Brushing my teeth was easier but putting paste on them was hard. Dressing up decently demanded more effort than other things. After putting on trousers and a shirt, I usually called my wife to button up. Now when she didn’t care so much about my affairs, I had to do it all by myself. Buttoning requires two hands and I had only one working so it took me more time to do it. And then the school had many difficulties to offer. Countless trivial things meant nothing before, had become vexatious tasks to toil with. At first, I didn’t want to accept the reality but had to. There were no other options. This was my life since my accident, exhausting and burdensome. Gradually I got used to everything……. not everything.”

“Marriage is just not an emotional bond. Emotional support is needed as well as the physical relationship between the two. I had those physical needs too. I enjoyed intimacy a lot with my supporting wife earlier after marriage. Every night when we go to bed, we made love. We were two bodies and one soul. Inseparable, unite with some kind of magic no one could break through but after this so-called condition, all the magic vanished into thin air. She became unemotional and passionless to our relation. She denied every further indulgence of intimacy with me. I felt lonely in my bedroom. Sometimes I woke up in the night, thinking that I was all physically well and tried to persuade her for sex and every time she refused and turned her back on me. I felt humiliated, insulted and disgraced every time I tried that. I could remember that day when she discarded me mercilessly and said it on my face that she didn’t feel anything for me anymore and I had to deal with my sexual desire. And then on, Whenever I felt like having sex I masturbated beside her. Masturbating and cursing that was how my sexual life went. Months after months, year after year went by and there had been no change in my wife’s behaviour, rather she clung to a new tendency to avoid me all the time. We didn’t talk much, didn’t eat together or go to bed together. She settled her room beside mine. We saw each other just at breakfast and dinner while she served me. I hated my life. Sometimes I felt like crying, shouting and asking God why He had ripped away every happiness from my life and cursed me to live that way.``

“Gradually I have become numb to my pains and accepted the reality though it hurt. I focused more on my children and started writing poetry. I also published some books. If you like you can read them. They are not about how I lived unhappily, uncontented but the love and affection I got from my kids.” He sounded both sad and happy.

We drank six cups of latte in the coffee shop, the evening vanished and night took charge. We bade good night and left for our respective homes. That night I couldn’t sleep. I could connect to his pain. The pain after I broke my ankle was nothing in comparison to his. I suffered only three months of dependency on others and he had all his life to live that way.

I know how it feels to live a life at mercy of others. You feel frustrated and disgusted about your life. And when somebody you need the most leaves you, It becomes more frustrating than ever. We get betrayed by our loved ones, it happens all the time because the foundation stone of a relationship is laid on the weak ground of false vows and superficial material expectations. The relationship collapses like a weak wall on a weak foundation when a surge of misfortune and misery shakes it to the base. 

This is my first story.

Hope you'll all like it.

Please share and comment.

Original 

by Avi Singh

[brajeshupadhyay]

RAY MASSEY: As first new cars roll off British production lines again, locked-down dealers preparing to re-open showroom doors to customers By Ray Massey Motoring Editor For The Daily Mail Published: 17:06 EDT, 22 May 2020 | Updated: 19:02 EDT, 22 May 2020 As the first new cars roll off British production lines again, thousands of locked-down dealers are preparing to re-open their showroom doors to customers.  With ministers urging people to avoid public transport and pent up demand for new and used cars, many returning to work after the Bank ­Holiday will be looking to buy a cheap commuter runaround.  In the past few weeks, ‘click and collect’ services have been allowed, whereby, though showroom doors remain shut, customers who have placed orders online or by phone, can still drive away vehicles.  New regime: Subject to Government approval, from June 1 showroom doors will reopen with social distancing and sanitising measures Subject to Government approval, from June 1 showroom doors will reopen with social distancing and sanitising measures.  The changes can’t come soon enough. Car sales have tanked during lockdown, though research by What Car? suggests nearly one-in-five buyers will be looking to make a purchase in June.  Volvo chief executive Hakan Samuelsson has even spoken of ‘revenge buying’:            ­’People are tired of sitting at home locked in and want to go out and buy.’  Guidelines for reopening dealerships recommend an appointments system. There must be social distancing signs, sanitiser stations, and a one-way walking system. Coffee and children’s play areas are out, too. Test drives are allowed, but must be unaccompanied.  The motor and car retail industry has been urging Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his government to confirm that it will include automotive retailers in the first wave of ‘non-essential’ retail re-openings from June 1, and allow car sales from showrooms to safely restart. There are 4,900 car dealerships in the UK. The £200 billion automotive retail sector employs 590,000 people and contributes £36 billion a year to the public purse. Sue Robinson, director of the National Franchised Dealers’ Association (NFDA) said: ‘Dealerships are ready to welcome back staff and customers, with comprehensive safety measures covering showroom interactions, vehicle demos and test-drives. ‘People need cars to get back to work. The guidance will allow automotive retailers to provide the best possible service in sales and after-sales, while protecting staff and guests. ‘Retailers are resilient and will be working hard to overcome any challenges to safely welcome customers back to the showrooms.’ She noted: ‘The Government has told people they should avoid public transport and return to work on foot, by bicycle or by car, and the majority of the UK population will be relying heavily on cars to get to work, and on vans and trucks to move goods around the country. ‘Franchised dealerships provide reliable motor vehicles – cars, vans and commercial vehicles – which are essential for many people to get to work and to undertake their work safely and efficiently. Automotive retailers need to be open to serve the workforce and get the country moving again’. Robert Forrester, chief executive of Vertu Motors, the UK’s fifth largest dealership group which in one day received 764 internet enquiries and sold 135 cars, said: ‘We are increasingly back in business and, armed with a face-mask made by my mum, I can’t wait. ‘With more of the sales force back….the only way is up.’ Vauxhall bosses have warned they will not resume production at their Ellesmere Port factory until dealerships selling their cars are open. Mike Hawes, chief executive of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), said: ‘A healthy new car market is a barometer of a strong economy and, with mobility so crucial to our everyday lives, now is the time to allow showrooms to re-open their doors. ‘It sets the wheels of the UK’s recovery in motion. It helps drive manufacturing and gets consumers and businesses safely back on the move in the latest, cleanest, high-tech vehicles.’ Online searches for cars on sites such as AutoTrader – whose survey found more than half of those without a car were considering buying one to avoid public transport – have increased since PM Boris Johnson announced an easing of measures. Andy Oldham, chief executive of BuyaCar.co.uk, said: ‘Car sales in general are heading toward a very busy re-start. Consumers who have been kept out of the market for some time have a stronger appetite than ever for securing the best car they can afford.’    After weeks off the road, Peugeot, Citroen, Vauxhall and DS owners can have their cars refreshed to help beat the virus. Parent company Groupe PSA’s new anti-bacterial refresh service — at £99 via its retailers — aims to minimise the risk of spreading Covid-19. It includes: cleaning the air conditioning system to remove bugs and nasty odours; replacing pollen filters; a 29-point vehicle health check of key components; and a full internal and external disinfection of the vehicle. The service operates under strict social distancing and hygiene guidelines, including contactless drop-off, collection and return at home or work. Online used car retailer Cazoo.co.uk offers a £250 discount to NHS workers on cars, which can be bought and delivered contactlessly within 72 hours. Late-summer bloom: The 180mph eighth-generation Porsche Targa 911 PORSCHE’S EIGHTH-GENERATION 911 TARGA SET TO HIT THE ROAD  Those seeking something more than a runaround have a treat in store.  In August, Porsche begins delivery of its eighth-generation 911 Targa.  Powered by a 3-litre flat-six twin turbocharger engine, the Targa 4 (385hp) is priced from £98,170, and goes from rest to 62mph in 4.2seconds, with a 180mph top speed.  The beefier 911 Targa 4S ( 450hp ) , from £ 109, 725, accelerates from rest to 62mph in 3.6 seconds, up to a top speed of 189mph. Driving force: Hyundai’s Ioniq came top in a poll of 10,000 vehicle owners by HonestJohn.co.uk HYUNDAI’S IONIQ RATED UK’S MOST SATISFYING CAR TO OWN  Hyundai’s Ioniq has been rated the UK’s most satisfying car to own in a poll of 10,000 vehicle owners by HonestJohn.co.uk.  It is followed by the Skoda Superb Estate, Hyundai i10 (2014-2019), Toyota Prius, Skoda Kodiaq and BMW 5 Series Touring (2010-2017).  By contrast, the least satisfying were the Vauxhall Astra (2009-15), Vauxhall Meriva (2010–17) and Citroen C3 Picasso, which was also named least reliable.  Most reliable cars were the Toyota Prius, Toyota Yaris, Mazda CX-5, Kia Sportage and Mercedes-Benz E-Class Estate (2010-2016).  Worst for reliability were Jeep, Tesla, Vauxhall, Citroen and Alfa Romeo.  Cars were rated on fuel economy, practicality and safety. The top five brands for satisfaction were Lexus, Skoda, Jaguar, Korea’s SsangYong and Hyundai.   The first Range Rover made under social distancing measures rolled off the Jaguar Land Rover line at Solihull in the West Midlands this week. Seat has extended warranty cover on all vehicles by three months due to the closure of retailers in the Covid-19 pandemic.  Advertisement Share or comment on this article: Some links in this article may be affiliate links. If you click on them we may earn a small commission. That helps us fund This Is Money, and keep it free to use. We do not write articles to promote products. We do not allow any commercial relationship to affect our editorial independence. The post RAY MASSEY: Car dealers preparing to re-open showrooms appeared first on Sansaar Times.

http://sansaartimes.blogspot.com/2020/05/ray-massey-car-dealers-preparing-to-re.html

#SEO #Local SEO training #daily news paper #daily news india #daily news newspaper #technology news a

[d2kvirus]

Dickheads of the Month: December 2019

As it seems that there are people who say or do things that are remarkably dickheaded yet somehow people try to make excuses for them or pretend it never happened, here is a collection of some of the dickheaded actions we saw in the month of December 2019 to make sure that they are never forgotten.

There’s something wrong with the British electorate when they look at nine years of austerity, massive layoffs in police and NHS staff, outright persecution of the disabled, the country’s economy and standing being completely tanked and housing safety reports being sat on until Grenfell went up and their thought is “I want five more years of that!”

...although nobody should overlook how Liberal Democrat supporters refused to accept any responsibility for the result, in spite their party being directly responsible in handing control of Kensington to the Tories by 150 votes, as well as splitting the votes in Tory marginals Cities of London & Westminster and Finchley & Golders Green

...while Blue Labour crawled out of the woodwork to say the reason why Labour lost was because they weren’t indistinguishable enough from the Tories (which makes so much sense...) while saying the party should have listened to Caroline Flint - the same Caroline Flint who said that Labour should shut up and fall in line with the Tories...and lost her seat as a result

Nothing sums up Laura Kuenssberg better than how, the day before the General Election, she appeared on Politics Live to either blatantly lie about seeing postal votes or casually break electoral law by discussing postal vote results she claims to have seen - which is a direct violation of the The Representation of the People Act 1983

...although with Laura Kuenssberg being Laura Kuenssberg it wasn’t long before yet another example of gross unprofessionalism reared its head when she forgot her job is to report the news and not create it according to her own personal bias when she said history would condemn all Remainers who tried to undo Britait, which not only happens to be a direct violation of the BBC’s editorial guidelines but also betrays a remarkable failure to understand history

...and she was hardly the only example of this, not when Suraj Sharma was putting up anti-Corbyn posters outside polling stations across Merseyside on election day in spite doing so being illegal

It shouldn't surprise anyone that proven liar Boris Johnson broke his election promises within a week of duping the electorate, with him binning off pledges on workers rights, raising minimum wage and taking No Deal off the table - yet somehow the ignorant foghorns defend this by saying something about four legs being good

...soon afterwards proven liar Boris Johnson also reneged on the campaign pledge to raise the national living wage to £10.50 and instead raised it to £8.72 - and of course the BBC tried to spin that as a good thing, crowing about the percentage that it had increased by instead of how the Tories have been pledging that figure since the 2015 election

Smirking halfwit Priti Patel decided she too wanted to exploit the London Bridge attack for political gain and was quick to claim that the laws that saw the attacker released were implemented by a Labour government...in spite the obvious issue that he was released due to laws passed in 2012, i.e. when the Tories were in government and Theresa May was serving as Home Secretary, but that’s not important right now...

...soon afterwards Godfrey Bloom also decided the best course of action was to go on the offensive against the deceased’s family, going so far as to say that as the deceased believed Jihadists should be released early he reaped what he sowed and, by the way, could the deceased’s father pipe down and stop saying nasty things about the Tories

Australians were happy when their Prime Minister Scott Morrison responded to the widespread wildfires torching the country by...not being there as he’d rather bugger off to Hawaii on holiday, and having begrudgingly cut his holiday short his next suggestion was to try and withhold compensation for the volunteer firefighters that were combating what had become the most widespread wildfires in decades

Tory donors Alan Howard and Jeremy Isaacs showed how committed the two are to the party and to Britait by...paying millions of their own money to buy Cypriot passports so they don’t have to leave the EU like the plebs who voted to Leave will have to

It’s not even a surprise that the BBC somehow mutated a story of fact-checkers revealing that 88% of Tory Facebook ads contained lies compared to 0% of Labour’s into a headline saying both parties had been warned about publishing untruths during the campaign as opposed to just one of them

...although ITV were not far behind with their reimagining of Stormzy saying “Yes, 100%” as an answer to the question “Do you think Britain is racist?” into the headline “Stormzy says Britain is ‘100% racist’” which (predictably) got those who get far more riled up by the suggestion that they’re racist than they ever are by the existence of racism to kick off on social media

Nobody was surprised that Allison Pearson responded to the photos of the four year-old boy sleeping on the floor of Leeds General Infirmary was to claim the photos were staged...and being the coward that she is, she played the usual “I was hacked” card as if she doesn’t have a track record for shit like this

Among the wave of inept tactical voting guides The Guardian published the most inept of them all, telling their readers to vote Lib Dem in seats held by pro-Remain Labour MPs - which worked out marvelously in Kensington, didn’t it?

...and right before the year ended Jeremy Gilbert further aided The Guardian’s credentials of not having a clue by writing a hit piece saying that if Labour want to win elections they need to not be Labour, as if Clement Atlee or Harold Wilson didn’t exist - or, more likely with the usual centrist idiocy, the belief that Labour didn’t exist until Tony Blair came along and made them Labour In Name Only

Of course the dogwhistling boneheads would find some excuse to foam at the mouth about Diane Abbott during the election campaign, and this time it was her wearing two different shoes, which begs just one question: “...and?”

In a remarkable act of cowardice Arsenal responded to the Chinese state broadcaster pulling a broadcast of their match of their match against Manchester City due to Mesut Ozil’s criticism of the country’s treatment of Uighur Muslims by...throwing Ozil under the bus and claiming he doesn’t represent the club

In the mind of Patrice Désilets the reason why Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey got remarkably average Metacritic reviews isn’t because the game has a boring gameplay loop and unintuitive controls, but because a couple of reviewers spoke about features that weren’t in the game (although he neglected to say who those reviewers were, as they don’t appear to be on Metacritic) that obviously mean that all reviewers didn’t play the game and just decided to be negative for the sake of it

As if going full Pravda wasn’t reason enough to doubt anything the BBC say ever again, the fact that they ran a story about Cats receiving glowing reviews further showed just how uninterested they are in reporting an actual story compared to their own interpretation of it

When it emerged that Caroline Flack had assaulted her partner by cracking him in the head with a lamp while he was sleeping her response was to come out swinging with a bullish attitude that she wouldn't leave Love Island really worked in her favour...for about a day, until ITV announced she’d been replaced, and it wasn’t as if they had to look too hard for a replacement

It’s the time of year where Kevin Spacey posts a video of him totally in character as Frank Underwood from House of Cards...which was the creepy side of weird last year, but this year weird’s gone out the window

Somebody opened the crypt in which Michael Howard sleeps his eternal slumber, meaning we had to hear him venture his opinion about how judges should not be allowed to use their knowledge or judgment and instead shut up and fall in line with what the government tells them to do

Somehow a story about how Jo Maugham killed a fox in his back garden with a baseball bat while wearing his wife’s silk kimono on Boxing Day morning wasn’t a headline from Guido Blog designed to whip up their readers into indignant and/or ignorant rage, instead something that Jo Maugham himself tweeted on Boxing Day morning having done just that

Of course Tom Watson crawled out the woodwork to say it;s terrible how Labour members hated him...while at no point mentioning his years of backstabbing or how he tried to disqualify Labour members from voting in a leadership election so he could install the centrist option that nobody wanted

Nobody was surprised to see Darren Grimes taking to Twitter to bemoan the lack of funding in public infrastructure in the north...just as nobody was surprised to see the penny clearly hadn’t dropped with him that he was campaigning on behalf of the people who slashed public service infrastructure funding in the north for the past nine years

Hard centre extremist Andrew Adonis thought it was a smart idea to say that Corbynism needs to be “eradicated” from the Labour party.  Just a hint: that’s what Tom Watson thought was a bright idea

It’s one thing for Youtube to play it safe with this year’s Youtube Rewind after last year’s downvote prison romance, but making the 2019 Rewind little more than a WatchMojo list video without the commentary goes beyond playing it safe and into being downright lazy

For a brief moment Giles Coren thought he was Rod Liddle, judging by his Times column where he spoke about Owen Jones getting a peerage and preying on the anal virginity of young researchers

There’s something pathetic about various WWE wrestlers taking to Twitter to mouth off about a badly-performed spot on an episode of AEW Dynamite that can either be explained by them being ordered to tweet that crap out by Vince McMahon or by their suddenly feeling threatened, which only served to make them look like the pro-WWE trolls that howl about everything AEW-related in a manner which stopped being amusing and started being concerning a couple of months ago

And finally, because of course, is Thanos wannabe Donald Trump and his belief that Justin Trudeau is “two-faced” because he said nasty things about the Orange Overlord - but of course, there’s no record of Trump ever saying nasty things about any nation’s leader after pretending to be all buddy-buddy with them

#dickheads of the month

[entergamingxp]

Ring Fit Adventure and the Sherlock Holmes of walking • Eurogamer.net

Over the festive break we’ll be running through our top 20 picks of the year’s best games, leading up to the reveal of Eurogamer’s game of the year on New Year’s Eve. You can find all the pieces published to date here – and thanks for joining us throughout the year!

Earlier this year I met the Sherlock Holmes of walking. I had been referred to a neurophysio by my MS nurse, after a few months in which I felt like I was being stalked by the prospect of a calamitous fall – a Thompson Twins tumble into a flower bed or ornamental fountain. I turned up at Brighton General one spring morning ready to be told that I was wasting everyone’s time. I think I have an unusual walk, perhaps, but nothing to be concerned about, and maybe the falling thing was all in my head. When I was introduced to my physio I apologised in advance for not being a more interesting case.

She made me walk across the room. Halfway through I thought, Man, I am acing this. Then she made me stop. Did she steeple her fingers? Maybe not. She might as well have anyway. Did I know, she asked, that my feet crossed each other’s paths as I walked? Did I know that I wobbled whenever I changed direction? Did I know how much I sway when I’m just standing still? Did I know that the front of my shoe regularly clipped the ground by accident?

The front of my shoe? I was pretty sure this was not correct and I said so. “Your shoes,” Holmes replied, “tell a different story.”

Five years of MS has left me with balance problems and an unusual gait, all of which I am fine with. I am doing very well overall, touch wood. (Five years of MS has also left me with superstition.) But I am constantly being told that I should be exercising more, because of balance, sure, but also because of spasticity and fatigue and all that jazz. I have tried to exercise, I really have. But I have never stuck with it.

Until Ring Fit Adventure came along.

Now, please note up front that I am not saying Ring Fit Adventure is helping with MS. I would never ask that of it in the first place. I’m not looking for it to make me walk in a different way or to deal with my balance issues or spasticity. What I want from it is something that will make me remember regularly to do a bit of exercise. Ideally I’m after something that makes exercise part of my weekly routine.

And so far, it’s delivering in glorious fashion. The thing about exercise is that I get distracted. Then I start to sort of slip a bit in what I’m doing. If I’m jogging I start to think, “Oh man, this is boring. What’s that thing where you cook down carrots and celery and onions called? Is that a magpie over there?” and pretty soon I’ve stopped jogging entirely. In Ring Fit Adventure I jog on the spot for ages, it seems, without ever giving in to distraction. That’s because while I’m in my living room, I’m also moving through this magical Nintendo fantasy land, using a funny exercise ring thing to draw in coins, to jump over logs, to move a minecart and to smash crates.

It is astonishing that Nintendo can get such a range of activities out of a leg strap and an exercise ring. But what’s more astonishing is that Nintendo can wrap the whole thing up in a quest scenario that has me coming back, three or four times a week, and exercising for thirty minutes or so each time. This probably isn’t changing my world – I still feel like I am due that fall – but it’s a start. And it’s habit-forming, I hope. It’s a start!

The genius, of course, is that while this is an exercise package, it’s also Nintendo to its core. It’s filled with surprises and jollity and quirk and all kinds of cleverness. And it delivers feedback with a wonderful sense of connection. Nintendo has always been brilliant at squeezing hardware and software together until they are completely meshed. On this occasion in particular, I cannot thank them enough.

(And personal thanks to the NHS, which I hope goes without saying.)

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2019/12/ring-fit-adventure-and-the-sherlock-holmes-of-walking-%e2%80%a2-eurogamer-net/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ring-fit-adventure-and-the-sherlock-holmes-of-walking-%25e2%2580%25a2-eurogamer-net

[rathertoofondofbooks]

It’s week 2 of Non-Fiction November and this week’s prompt is over on Sarah’s Book Shelves and it is all about pairing up non-fiction books with fiction.

I thought this was going to be really difficult but once I took a few minutes to think about it, and to scroll through my Goodreads account, I came up with a few!

Firstly I have a couple of nonfiction books to recommended.. If you loved one then I think you’ll love the other too!

Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer + Dead Mountain by Donnie Eichar

I read both of these books in 2019 and they are both such fascinating reads. Each features explorations of very cold, inhospitable places and reflections on what happened along with some history. Dead Mountain is looking at a mysterious case from the 1950s where a group of experienced explorers all died in very strange circumstances. Into Thin Air is about a group who climb Everest in the 1990s but something goes wrong near the summit and people died. Afterwards there was a lot of discussion about the truth of what happened that day. I think if you enjoyed one of these books you would also enjoy the other.

The Last Act of Love by Cathy Rentzenbrink + Past Caring by Audrey Jenkinson

I read these books quite a long time ago but it’s testament to them that I still remember them so clearly. The Last Act of Love is an incredibly moving book about the aftermath of an accident that seriously injured Cathy’s brother. She and her family looked after him from then on until his death. Past Caring is a book that I discovered in the months after my mum died and it was a huge help to me. It’s all about how it feels, and how to cope, when you have been a carer for a loved one who has since died. It’s hard to suddenly not be a carer anymore, to not be needed when it’s been your life for so long. I recommend both of these books – the first is a book for everyone and the second is more for if you have been caring for someone, it really is an excellent resource.

  Then I have some fiction books that I’ve read and enjoyed so have paired them with some non-fiction titles that are linked in some way.

Full Disclosure by Camryn Garrett + How to Survive a Plague: The Story of How Activists and Scientists Tamed AIDS by David France AND And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic by Randy Schilts

I just finished reading Full Disclosure at the weekend so I haven’t yet written my review. As soon as I started writing this post though I knew I had to include it. It’s about a teenage girl who is HIV Positive (which she contracted from her birth mother). She lives with her two dads and lives a very normal life. The book is a brilliant portrayal of what it is to live with HIV in the present day and I recommend it. I wanted to pair it with two books that both give such an excellent overview of the history of HIV and AIDS. Randy Schilts book is an older book so it doesn’t cover more recent developments but it is still a very good read. David France’s book is very recent and I found it fascinating. Both non-fiction books are well-researched but they’re written in a very accessible way and I would recommend them to anyone wanting to know more.

The Things We Thought We Knew by Mahsuda Snaith + It’s All in Your Head: True Stories of Imaginary Illness by Suzanne O’Sullivan

The Things We Thought We Knew is a brilliant novel following a teenager who is bedbound with chronic pain. Through the novel we learn that her childhood best friend went missing and she has struggled to cope with the loss. Her situation is complex and I felt such sympathy for her. I adored the novel and am keen to re-read it. The non-fiction I recommend after reading the novel is It’s All in Your Head. I read this book whilst recovering from neurosurgery and I got engrossed in it. It’s a book by a doctor who is exploring illnesses where there is no apparent physical cause. She never says it’s all in your mind in a dismissive way, it’s more a fascinating look at how our minds can cause symptoms to present in the body. These symptoms need treating just as much as actual physical illness but O’Sullivan shows how patients and doctors need to be open to exploring other avenues such as psychotherapy. I loved the book and highly recommend it.

Carry You by Beth Thomas + Motherless Daughters: The Legacy of Loss by Hope Edelman

I read Carry You about five years ago and it’s a book that’s really stayed with me. It’s a contemporary novel and the main character is trying to re-build her life after the death of her mum. I loved the book and want to re-read it soon. I’m pairing it with Motherless Daughters, which is a book I discovered in the months after my mum died. It was the book I needed in those months and I recommend it to anyone who has lost their mother. I liked how Hope tells her own story but the book also contains lots of other women’s stories too so it really is a book for any woman whose mother has died. It’s perhaps not a book if you haven’t experienced that loss but it’s one to make a note of, I have since gifted copies to friends who are grieving the loss of their own mother.

Still Lives by Maria Hummell + After the Eclipse by Sarah Perry 

I read Still Lives very recently and found it a really interesting read. It features an art exhibition by a female artist who has painted herself into the murder scene of women who became infamous after their deaths (such as Nicole Brown-Simpson). It’s a crime thriller but what stood out to me was the exploration of how society either fetishises murdered women, or it ignores them completely to focus on the killer. I’m pairing this with After the Eclipse, which is one of my favourite non-fiction books that I’ve read this year. In this book Sarah Perry writes about the murder of her mum when she was a young teenager. Sarah explores her own emotions from the time but also looks back on the time through her adult eyes. She really made me think about how in our fascination with true crime documentaries we often almost forget that the murdered woman was a person, she had a family and friends. This is a book I recommend to everyone.

The First Time Lauren Pailing by Alyson Rudd + I Am I Am I Am by Maggie O’Farrell

I read The First Time Lauren Pailing Died a few weeks ago and enjoyed it. It’s about Lauren Pailing and she has a fairly ordinary life but when she’s a teen she dies in an accident. At this point we see the aftermath of her death and how it affected her loved ones but we also see Lauren survive the accident and go on with her life. She later dies again and the splits occur once more and you follow all the timelines. It’s such a good read, and even though it sounds confusing I found it easy to follow. I think if you enjoyed this book you should read I Am I Am I Am by Maggie O’Farrell. I’m the biggest fan of her writing so was eager to read her first non-fiction writing and it’s a brilliant book. Maggie looks back on her life through each of the times that she had a brush with death. This book really resonated with me and I’m definitely going to re-read it next year. If you haven’t already read it, I highly recommend it.

Histories by Sam Guglani + Breaking and Mending by Joanna Cannon

Histories is an interlinked short story collection that I found really powerful. You see the hospital through the eyes of different people who are there – doctors, nurses, cleaners, admin staff and patients and each story adds depth to another story in the book. It’s a great read and really stays with you. Breaking and Mending is Joanna Cannon’s reflections on her time as a junior doctor and it’s an incredibly powerful book. I found it breathtaking in how she shows the realities of working in the NHS and it’s made such an impression on me. This is a book I recommend to everyone.

The Lion Tamer Who Lost by Louise Beech + Good As You: From Prejudice to Pride – 30 Years of Gay Britain by Paul Flynn

The Lion Tamer Who Lost is one of my favourite novels so I recommend it if you haven’t already read it. It follows Ben who is working at a lion reserve in Africa, which he’s always dreamt of doing but he’s not happy. Over the novel we find out about Ben’s relationship with Andrew and it’s such a stunning read. It made me cry when I read it but now when I think of it I remember the beauty and hope in the early days of Ben and Andrew as they fall in love. I’m pairing this with Good As You, which is a book looking back at 30 years of what it is to be gay in Britain. It’s one of those non-fiction books that you learn things from but it’s written in such a way that you fly through it. I was picking it up every chance I had, just like I do with fiction. Both books have heartbreak and hope and I recommend them.

Accidental Emeralds by Vivienne Tuffnell + The Point of Poetry by Joe Nutt

Accidental Emeralds is a poetry collection that I read around the time I started reviewing books on my blog. It’s a beautiful collection that looks at longing and love through the changing of the seasons. I loved the collection and plan to re-read it but I was very apprehensive about reviewing it because I never feel like I’m clever enough to fully understand how to write about poetry. Earlier this year I read The Point of Poetry by Joe Nutt which is a brilliant book that looks at a selection of poems and explores them in a way that makes poetry feel so accessible. The book even made me re-read a poem that I detested while studying at school and I ended up finding I really enjoyed it. The Point of Poetry is for everyone and I recommend it to anyone who has ever felt intimidated to read poetry or to write about it.

The Evidence Against You by Gillian McAllister + Stand Against Injustice by Michelle Diskin Bates

This pairing was a late edition to this post but I wanted to include it anyway. The Evidence Against You is a crime thriller that follows a young woman as her father is about to be released from prison. He was convicted of killing her mother but now he’s  protesting his innocence. She doesn’t know what to believe but she decides to try and find out what the truth is. A couple of weeks ago I read Stand Against Injustice which is about a terrible miscarriage of justice. Barry George was wrongfully convicted of murdering TV presenter Jill Dando and this book, written by Barry’s sister, explores what the family have been through over the last twenty years. It really gives an insight into what it is having a loved one in prison, and how much it takes to fight for justice. I highly recommend this one.

    If You Like That, You’ll Love This! #Fiction #NonFiction #BookPairings It's week 2 of Non-Fiction November and this week's prompt is over on Sarah's Book Shelves…

#Accidental Emeralds #After the Eclipse #AIDS #Alyson Rudd #And The Band Played On #Audrey Jenkinson #Beth Thomas #Book Pairings #Breaking and Mending #Camryn Garrett #Carry You #Cathy Rentzenbrink #David France #Dead Mountain #Donnie Eichar #Fiction #Full Disclosure #Gillian McAllister #Good As You #Histories #HIV #Hope Edelman #How to Survive a Plague #I Am I Am I Am #Into Thin Air #It&039;s All in Your Head #Joanna Cannon #Joe Nutt #Jon Krakauer #Louise Beech