Here is the second in the series of tourism videos that Kevin and I have made for the One25 fundraiser. This one is all about Australia.
I’ll be bringing you photo selections through the day from some of the places we discussed.
Author: Cheryl
Welcome to Virtual Australia #GiveItUp125
G’day possums, here I am in another one of my favourite parts of the world. Let’s kick things off with a brief introduction to the wonders of Australia.
And of you like what I’m doing here, please consider donating to help One25.
Coronavirus – Day #64
It has been another busy day at the fundraising coalface. So far so good, I think. I hope people are enjoying it.
There was also WiFi SciFi #3, for which I was a panelist. We had a great time. Thanks to Anne, Kevlin and all of the team.
As with yesterday, it has also been a busy day on social media. We’ve had the brilliant Guy Gavriel Kay’s #CocktailHour, where we all dress up and post selfies with a drink of our choice. And we’ve had #StayAtHomeDisco run by my lovely pal Laura Rawlings from BBC Radio Bristol. Conviently they were on at the same time so I was able to make one outfit do for both.
Out in the “real” world today there have been “anti-lockdown” protests in major British cities. No automatic weapons here, but doubtless the same far-right funders behind it all. Today was also the first day in around 3 weeks that the 7-day rolling average of deaths in the UK ticked significantly upwards. Cummings and his pals will doubtless be pleased with a job well done.
At Home With The Otters #GiveItUp125
In our tourism video Kevin and I talked about the wonders of the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I am particularly fond of the sea otters. Now that it is mid-afternoon in California they should be up and about. Here’s the live webcam.
The Aquarium has a number of webcams. If you prefer fins to paws, here’s the shark cam:
Nalo on Los Angeles #GiveItUp125
My final video for California is with one of the Caribbean’s finest writers. I was worried that I was very much giving a white person’s view of the countries I was visiting, so I asked Nalo if she’d be willing to be interviewed. She’ll be back on Tuesday to talk about Toronto, but right now she’s living near LA. Here she is:
Cheryl & Kevin Go To – California #GiveItUp125
For me one of the most fun parts of the #GiveItUp125 challenge has been getting together with Kevin over Zoom to reminisce about our various tourist trips. This one is long, because Kevin was born in California and I spent a long time there. We hope you enjoy it.
As always, we are doing this in the hope that you will donate to help One25.
Bonfante Gardens #GiveItUp125
Here’s another tourism post from Emerald City. This time Kevin took me to a horticultural theme park with an interesting history. These days they have re-named themselves Gilroy Gardens, but the famous Circus Trees are still there.
I did a little write-up in the ‘zine, and took some photos.
Up in the Sierras #GiveItUp125
I don’t have a lot of photos of my time in California because smartphones hadn’t been invented back then and digital cameras were still a bit dodgy. Also I seem to have spent most of my time photographing visits to science fiction conventions rather than tourist spots. However, there are a couple of records of tourist trips in Emerald City. This is one of them.
Kevin took me up into the Sierras to visit his mother. We timed to visit to coincide with a local Blues Festival, which I wrote about here. There are also photos here and here.
These days you can find good musicians on line, so here’s Craig Horton in action:
And here’s Steve Gannon:
Welcome to (Virtual) California #GiveItUp125
Here we go again. Today I am in Virtual California. There will be music, science fiction, and tourism. Later on I will be joined by Kevin, and by Nalo Hopkinson. But for now, here’s an introduction and some food.
There’s a mistake I noticed in that video. Thanks to Bozo and his jolly chums doing such a good job of destroying the UK’s economy, California now has the 5th largest economy in the world.
And here is Nigella’s recipe for Roquamole. You’re welcome.
Coronavirus – Day #63
Well that was an exhausting day. And I have five more to go. Of course it didn’t help that I had the #QBLockdownHunt thing to do as well.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it all. Please to tell your friends if you did. There must be some more people out there who would be willing to give a few pounds to help One25.
Here’s the link to the fundraiser.
I have no idea what is happening back in the UK. I hope Bozo doesn’t manage to destroy the country before I get back.
Life in Pompeii #GiveItUp125
As promised in my last video, here are some pictures from the Last Supper in Pompeii Exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. In case anyone is worried, that’s not a real dormouse in the pot.
If you want to learn to cook like a Roman, here is a modern edition of Apicius. Or you can get the original for free from Project Gutenberg.
And before I forget again, here is the Delia Smith recipe for zabaglione.
Italian Food – Part II #GiveItUp125
It has been a busy day in Virtual Italy. There’s more content to come this evening, but first here is the second part of my video about Italian food. I get to have that zabaglione, and Augustus and I talk a bit about Roman food. Enjoy.
The Queer Britain #QBLockdownHunt Challenge
A quick break from Virtual Italy to note that there’s another charity campaign going on today. Queer Britain is a wonderful project that aims to create an actual bricks & mortar exhibition of LGBT+ life in the UK. Today my friend Dan Vo is running an awareness campaign on Twitter and is asking people to find t-shirts and fliers that relate to queer history and post about them. He’s also interviewing a whole bunch of fabulous people. I have rather a lot of material, so I decided to channel my inner Dan and make a video. This covers a lot of my work with OutStories Bristol, how I got involved in doing LGBT History Month Events (sorry Sue, you are stuck with me now), and a little bit about the tragedy of the UK’s lost trans history archives. The latter is an excellent example of why Queer Britain is so badly needed. There’s also a little bit of science fiction in there.
Exploring Rome #GiveItUp125
On my way back from Bologna I spent a day or so in Rome seeing the sights. I barely managed to scratch the surface of the things there were to see. If you are going to Rome, you need several days, and you need to book tickets for the various attractions well in advance or you won’t get in. Even then you may have to queue a long time to get into the Vatican.
Anyway, here are some photos. Huge thanks to my dear friend Francesco Verso who met up with me in the evening and took me around the part of the city where he grew up.
To Bolongna and Beyond #GiveItUp125
Is it time for some tourism? I think so. Back in 2017 I was extremely fortunate to be invited to give a paper at a conference organised by the University of Bologna. Obviously I was looking forward to visiting the home of that famous pasta dish, but it turned out even better because the university’s conference facilities were in a small village well south of the city. That got me into contact with Italy’s violent history of roving gangs of mercenaries (condottieri) and with one of the world’s most famous writers.
My thanks again to Raffaella Baccolini and everyone else involved in the conference. There is now a book of the proceedings. And now, here are some photos (click on one for a slide show and comments).
We’re Live! #GiveItUp125
In case you missed the announcement on Twitter, yes, the #GiveItUp125 challenge is now underway. I am in Virtual Italy, and I’ll be posting Italian content on various social media throughout the day. There will be music, tourism, books, and of course food. Here, in best Blue Peter tradition, is one that I prepared earlier.
If you like what I’m doing here, please consider donating to One25 who are doing amazing work in Bristol, putting themselves at risk to help those who have nothing.
And now, time for that Zabaglione…
Coronavirus – Day #62
Today started well. The weather was fine, the pollen count was low, and there were no urgent emails from clients. So I decided to go in search of hormones.
The car was a bit reluctant to start today, so I took a very circuitous route into town to get some charge into the battery. That’s probably contrary to one of the ever-changing Lockdown regulations, so if any of the “Gender Critical” mob are reading this, there’s your smoking gun. You can report me to the Authorities and have me taken away for re-education.
Boots was very quiet and the staff were very helpful. However, as all I had was an email copy of the prescription, they couldn’t fulfill it immediately. They need to phone my doctor and confirm that they are the only people I have approached. When they get that confirmation, they can order the hormones. But in order to find out if they have had confirmation I need to be able to get through to them on the phone, which is easier said than done. If I can’t get through after a few days I will have to go back and see them.
For some unexplained reason there was a massive queue at Tesco when I got there. It took forever to get in. They still didn’t have any flour, but I got a few things I needed for the Canada and France food list. There were a few more people wearing masks this time, including me, but we were still very much in the minority.
When I got back home there was a cement mixer blocking the road. I now have one neighbour and two people immediately across the road all having building work done. Being a builder is clearly a key occupation.
New Lockdown Reading – Steampunk! Kaiju!
Oh, wait, it is Thursday! I’m supposed to give you a free story. Well, here we go. This one is mine. It has trains, it has a kaiju. I really enjoyed writing it. I hope you like it to. Here’s the blurb:
The British Empire is being blackmailed by mad scientists. Prime Minister, Lord Palmerston needs a new and efficient means of defending the country, and he turns to the great engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, for help. Which is how a survivor of the Charge of the Light Brigade and a young Welsh artilleryman end up crewing Britain’s latest and most terrifying piece of military hardware: a train.
It is from Airship Shape & Bristol Fashion II, which I would love y’all to buy.
Some #GiveItUp125 Announcements
As you may have noticed, I reached my initial fundraising goal of £250 yesterday. It is great to know that I have something in the bank before I have produced anything. From tomorrow, however, the content should start streaming out, and that means plenty of opportunities to get people to contribute. So I have raised the target to £750.
Now that may seem a lot, but we are 33% of the way there already. And last year I raised £600, so I’m sure we can do it.
You may be wondering why there is a picture of bananas on this post. Well, last year Meghan & Harry Sussex made a Royal Visit to One25 (when they were doing such things) and Meghan decided to write “positive affirmations” on some of the bananas in the centre. That got all over the news. The folks at One25 have been a bit obsessed with bananas ever since, and several of them will be doing this year’s challenge dressed as a banana.
I do not have a banana suit.
But I have bananas. Six of them: one for each day of the challenge. So each day I will be channeling my inner (ex-)princess and writing a message on one (before eating it). For this I need your help. Each day I will be asking for ideas for that day’s message. It needs to be something short enough to fit on a banana, and sufficiently clean to be tweeted out. Tweet me ideas with the hashtag #GoBanana.
There’s more.
I’m delighted to announce that for the California and Canada legs of my tour I will be joined by the wonderful Nalo Hopkinson. Nalo currently lives near Los Angeles, but still calls Toronto home. Tune in to find out what she thinks of both cities.
And finally, when should you do that? Here’s the schedule:
- Friday 15th: Italy
- Saturday 16th: California
- Sunday 17th: Australia
- Monday 18th: Finland
- Tuesday 19th: Canada
- Wednesday 20th: France
Content will roll out here, on YouTube and on Twitter through each day. Enjoy!
Coronavirus – Day #61
Well, that was another day of doing day job stuff and not getting out to hunt for hormones. Still, earning money is good.
On which subject, the government has launched its scheme for helping self-employed people through the period of Lockdown. They told the BBC that most people eligible for help have been contacted and invited to apply. But my tax account wrote to me this morning to say that no one is being contacted and we should get on and apply. So I thought I would give it a try and see what happened. Needless to say, I was found to be ineligible, and the reasons that they gave for turning me down were very obviously incorrect. Anyone who has had dealings with the Department of Work & Pensions over the last few years will not be in the least surpised. These days trying to get money that you are entitled to out of the government bears a striking ressemblance to trying to get an insurance company to pay out on a claim. I suspect that a lot of middle class people will get a terrible shock.
Anyway, as I said, I am getting some income. So no panic just yet.
Meanwhile I am pleased to say that I have met my initial target for the One25 fundraiser. I’ll be announcing a new target for the 6 days of the campaign tomorrow. In the meantime I should get back to developing things to entertain you good people.