The Embassy

I received a text from Mrs THC part way through my morning at work.  It said that she'd been sent home from work because she was feeling crap, was aching, and her throat hurt. OK.  There it is.  Almost bound to happen at some point. I was feeling OK but I sent back a reply that I'd see my boss.  I knew what it meant: 14 days of self-isolation.  My boss had to look it up. As it happens, it's probably as much that her work is being cautious.  She doesn't have a persistent cough (and she also has a cough because she smokes like a chimney, to use a  cliché ), she doesn't have a fever, and she really doesn't have the common symptoms. But me?  I started feeling like my throat was hurting as soon as I got the message, and I got a headache. So, is it going to be 14 days of isolation?  It probably should be but I'm finding it hard, right now, to expect that.  Maybe a week to be on the safer side.  If Mrs THC doesn't come out wit...

I've taken a week's break from The Embassy now, for a couple of reasons. What a week, though.  In that time, the UK has almost shut down due to Coronavirus and my job role has changed to cope with it.  Still, I'm proud to announce I am now classed as a "key worker" so my kids can still go to school.  I'm open to adopt your kids if that helps.  I have cupboard space for sleeping.  They're especially welcome if they can make bread and don't need toilet paper. That isn't why I was away, though.  I've been working on my new Dip zine PERFIDIOUS and PERF#1 is out now.  It was actually out last weekend but then I buggered it up by being an idiot.  Oh well. And, if you're vigilant, you'll have noticed the name change.  It was originally and unimaginatively called "The Embassy Journal".  Is PERFIDIOUS better?  Oh yes.  If you want to subscribe to, send me an email . I have three subscribers already... which is infinitely mo...

You know, I have realised that I probably bang on too much.  What can I say?  I like the sound of my own writing (my voice, until laryngitis kicks in when I begin to sound like Barry White, is slightly too high pitched and squeaky). This led me to realise that I should probably be looking at different ways to put out what I want to put that's longer-winded than the long-winded stuff I publish here. And so The Embassy Journal was born. This is my zine, written to accompany the blog, but with articles and a smattering of other stuff.  You can get it from the link above, which will lead you to the first issue (March 2020).  Let me know what you think. All issues will be published on The Embassy Journal page on this blog, where you can also find subscription and contribution info.

During my internet downtime a couple of weekends ago, I spent some time 'designing' a new map to use for the blog.  Well, not really designing but recolouring an existing map.  Here's the base map: Now, I know from here it isn't very clear, but it doesn't really need to be.  It's the colouring that I've changed.  Here's the colour key: England France Italy Germany Austria-Hungary Turkey Russia Sea spaces Neutral spaces Armies Fleets This produces a gaudy map, I know, and it isn't anything like the traditional map colour-wise, but it's at least clear, I hope.  Not much use if you're completely colour-blind, but I'd hope if you don't easily differentiate between similar colours, this should work for you. Anyway, that's it.  Just a bit of info that, from today onward, this is the map I'll be using.

Well, somethings can't be predicted, I guess. I came home from work on Thursday of last week and found my router flashing away merrily.  Not in a good way, either.  No Internet.  Whoopee.  My partner got on the phone to our provider and spent all of Thursday evening with an engineer who tried to get us to fix it by text.  It got to 9:50pm and Janet said: "Bugger this, they close at 10!" So she phoned them again and refused to have text support.  This time the engineer spoke to her for 5 minutes or so and then said they'd send a new router out.  It would take two days.  So Friday is day one and Saturday is day two, right?  Well, apparently not.  Sunday would have been day two, except Sunday doesn't count which meant the new router was delivered on Monday.  We eagerly set the new, bigger, brighter router up Monday evening after getting home from work and bam... no, we weren't away.  Still no connection....