Fellow Bedmates

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149/365: Sunset towards the Wyre Forest
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A very warm (27 °C) day today, but disappointingly cloudy, which made it feel very humid and uncomfortable. I had enough time for a pint of perry at lunchtime, which was nice -- Wetherspoons is doing a Craft Cider Festival, and perry qualifies as pear cider. Specifically, I drank Midnight Special from Mr Whitehead's, a Hampshire company. A new one on me: medium-sweet and easy drinking, and although you wouldn't call it especially complex it did slip down well on a very warm day in the beer garden. My photo from today is of sunset during a short walk I was taking on the western fringes of Bewdley. This photo was taken at 9:56 pm, and I'm looking towards the Wyre Forest on the horizon.

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148/365: Derpy Hooves on a muffin, Worcester
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If you've been here a while then you'll probably know this first bit -- but if you're newish to this journal and are surprised by my subject line, then please read on: in the very specific context of the My Little Pony fandom, "Derpy" is the appropriate term here. It's the first name of the grey pony standing on my chocolate muffin. Although you can't see it in this profile view, she has wall eyes (originally an animation error) and is generally considered the fandom's mascot. There's a fairly detailed story behind why "Derpy" is almost universally accepted, which I'll happily repeat if anyone would like me to. But suffice it to say that in an MLP fandom context as applied to this specific pony, it is not only not a slur, it is the preferred name for her for the large majority of disabled Pony fans -- including for use by us non-disabled fans. I don't use the word anywhere else, but I do use it in Pony fandom without qualms.

As to why she's standing on my chocolate muffin... this is a photo from the MLP fandom meetup I went to today in Worcester. Derpy canonically loves muffins. I am very fond of them as well. I am also very fond of Derpy, though that's pretty much universal in the fandom. "Bolero" is the name of the café we use, a place which has been extremely good to us for some years now and which I thoroughly recommend. By the way, the character you can just see on the bag to the top left is Nightmare Moon. She was banished to the Moon (canonically "in the Moon", in fact) by her sister for a thousand years after trying to impose eternal night. Because, you know, kids' cartoon. :P

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147/365: Ozzy the Bull, Birmingham
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I had to be in Birmingham today for boring reasons, and the city was even busier than it usually is. The New Street Eats street food festival started today, and there was a major open day for prospective students at the University of Birmingham. Still, it wasn't as bad as it is in the run-up to Christmas! Today's photo may well look familiar as I've posted Ozzy before, just not as part of the 365 project. The concourse at Birmingham New Street station (the UK's busiest outside London) is now the permanent home for the mechanical bull that was built for the Commonwealth Games in 2022. His name, Ozzy, is a nod to Ozzy Osbourne, who grew up in Aston -- although he was actually born in Marston Green, over the border in Warwickshire.

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146/365: Windy Ridge house sign, Bewdley
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Although quite warm, it was really pretty gusty today. I didn't get out for much of a walk as I had too much to do, but I did at least manage to get a photo to keep the 365 going! Given the weather, I felt this house sign was a reasonable choice. Not very exciting, I know, but it's what you're getting. :P The forecast currently suggests another short heatwave is possible imminently, albeit more likely in the east -- there could be quite a big temperature gradient, with the west being much cooler. The east meanwhile seems certain to get up into the low 30s. The question which side of the line I in Worcestershire will fall!

Every time I look at American politics beyond the Preposterous Kumquat in the White House, I realise how little I know about it. From a British perspective Zohran Mamdani comes across like, let's say, Zarah Sultana -- and she'd be considered too left-wing to win the mayoralty even in liberal London. (The incumbent, Sadiq Khan, is generally fairly moderate.) But then New York City's Democratic majority is far higher than London's Labour lead, and the existence of Trump may be persuading lefties that they need radical politicians. Of course, what's popular in NYC won't necessarily win a Presidential election, and that (as when Corbyn was Labour leader here) may cause tensions down the line.