Did the ironing today while listening to an audiobook of Seamus Heaney reading his own poetry. Sublime (well, maybe the ironing wasn't quite sublime, although I do enjoy it!).

We're in a bizarre place at the moment where we can't access necessary timely support via the public sector yet papers run articles weekly insinuating there's a rush for autism & ADHD diagnoses to claim all sorts of benefits & special privileges that simply don't exist.

If you're near Stirling, get yourself over to Made In Stirling for @cstrawbridgeart.bsky.social beautiful exhibition of paintings. What a talent! I think the hare painting was my favourite, and the wildflower miniatures. Stunning.

Dr Abu Safiya was kidnapped by Israel from the hospital he worked at in December 2024, he had been beaten, electrocuted, starved and denied medical treatment for over 15 months, he is on the verge of death.

But he is still being held without charge in an Israeli torture camp.

It's just unreal how little thought or planning went into starting a new massive war in the Middle East.

Thank you @alcs.co.uk for the payment of secondary royalties. I love ALCS Day! What a great service.

Now waiting at York for the next one! Different route to usual (am heading to mum's for a few days) so need to stay awake for the next bit!

I don't remember it being called that, but I remember my number changing from 081 to 0181 (I lived in Forest Hill at the time).

View of Durham cathedral and castle from the train. Blue sky and wispy clouds. The best train view!

I don't love train travel (anxiety re changes of train, mostly - still two changes to go 😬), but views like this definitely help.

(I'm not convinced their search function is particularly amazing though)

ALLi (The Alliance of Independent Authors) has just opened an online shopfront for indie authors who are ALLi members. It's very new, but if it works out it might be a good place to start (caveat: my books are up there). bookstore.allianceindependentauthors.org

Outsider lives on Union Street Forced out by fire, the city’s fringe people are trying to regroup

The Bell's weekend read is about the fringe communities that populate Union Street, from the unhoused, to the alternative traders.

How are they regrouping after fire has forced them out? Read now.

What a joy to hear the lovely Al Ryan on Radio 3 breakfast this morning on my drive to work. Obviously he can't possibly ever leave the Shipping Forecast, but please BBC powers-that-be, give him his own show! #radio3

Taking a brief Bluesky break after bereavement.

ITV News: BBC to air Would I Lie To You Boxing Day episode featuring David Walliams

So, just to confirm, the BBC can’t keep Robin Ince on the air because his trans allyship brings the organisation into disrepute, but they can keep David Walliams, who performed Nazi salutes at the recording of this very show, on the air despite him being predatory towards women. Cool. Very normal.

Robin Ince reveals to last night’s audience at a recording of Infinite Monkey Cage that the BBC has forced him to resign over his support of trans people

Shame on them. I feel so sad for you, and angry. I hope you are even a little encouraged by the massive support you have from those of us oiks who aren't part of the Establishment.

Heartbreaking news, Robin Ince is the best of us, and while the transphobes and neurodiversity-is-a-fad brigade rejoice and will consider this another victory, Robin is on the right side not only of history but also of the here and now.

If You Use Gmail, You're Going To Want To Turn Off This 1 Automatic Setting ASAP Plus: a quick guide to the two-step process for opting out.

Google defaulting all Gmail users to a setting that enables Google to harvest all your emails into chatbot training is straight-up evil and invasive.

www.huffpost.com/entry/opt-ou...

Abandoned NHS IT system has cost £10bn so far Bill for abortive plan, described as 'the biggest IT failure ever seen', was originally estimated to be £6.4bn

They tried that (a friend of mine worked on it) and it went so over budget that it was ditched. www.theguardian.com/society/2013...

I'd be much less likely to skim them, that's for sure.

From this minister's op-ed: "People wanting to experience God are more likely to meet the Divine trying to shut down the Broadview, Illinois, ICE facility than we ever were in church...God does not live in our houses of worship, but...with those who are bearing the brunt of cruelty in this moment."

Heart’s Home - Orion Magazine A conversation about borders, belonging, and keeping the Kushners out

Deeply grateful to @orionmagazine.bsky.social for giving @alexismarieadams.bsky.social and myself the opportunity to have a conversation about borders, belonging, writing, rivers, grief and resistance, as well as our shared love for the more-than-human world.
orionmagazine.org/article/hear...

Boring Fund | Christina Poulton Applications now open! £200 grants available for small charities, CICs and voluntary groups towards some of those boring but hard-to-fund costs.

This might be of interest to a few people

The Boring Fund: Small (£200) grants to UK non-profits, charities and voluntary groups who just need a bit of help to pay for boring running costs like web hosting, admin, insurance etc

Apply by 30 November

www.christinapoultoncreative.co.uk/boring-fund

That is pretty much my fashion mantra.

A week before my wedding, I woke up with facial paralysis ‘Apart from having to drink my pints through a straw, occasionally needing to wear an eyepatch and the classical guitarist nobody could hear, I wouldn’t have changed a thing about the big day.’ - Nial...

This was so witty and human. What an absolute hero. open.substack.com/pub/bestforb...

Yes, I heard an interview with the author just after I'd finished SL, so interesting timing. I felt so sorry for his son.

I had a number of reasons for not staying in academia, but it was seeing colleagues go through this process again and again that really soured it for me. There must surely be a better system than this.