Previous month:
March 2020
Next month:
May 2020

April 2020

The Lockdown Diaries (3)

Because I’m generous, an open thread, in which to share links and bicker.

I’ll set the ball rolling with scenes of lockdown enforcement in what appears to be North Yorkshire

Oh, and this

And as some of you may be shopping from home a little more than usual, please bear in mind that any Amazon UK shopping done via this link or the search widget top right, or for Amazon US via this link, results in a small fee for your host at no extra cost to you.

It helps to keep this place here.

For those in need of further diversion, the Reheated series is there to be poked at


Friday Ephemera

High stakes game. || Hardcore buffet. || You think you’ve had a bad day? || A brief history of Supermarionation. || Insert tab ‘a’ into slot ‘b’. || Whatever this is, he’s doing it better than you. || Hot mountain. || Handsome devil. || In my day, we had to make our own entertainment. || Nommy nommy nom. || San Francisco, March 22. || You want one and you know it. || The Antarctic Winter Film Festival. || Wash your potatoes thoroughly. || Under pressure. || Build your own paper jukebox. (h/t, Coudal) || A guide to the giraffe. Includes chest-butts and achieving longness. || Isolated showers. || Look sharp, your date’s arrived. || Unintended consequences. || And finally, amphibiously, one tab or two?


Solid Foundations

Dan Butler, 29, a radio journalist, and his husband, Hugh O’Connor, 31, a theatre production designer, are also in a relationship with Charles Davis, 28, another theatre production designer.

Heh. Sorry, mustn’t laugh. I denounce myself. And in case you’re wondering, yes, the above is from the Guardian’s ‘Lifestyle’ section, where polyamory – or glorified slutting by emotional inadequates – is still the latest thing and breathlessly endorsed. It starts off quite romantically: 

[Dan and Hugh] met as students at a party… And then the night was over, and Dan was one of the last people there. He said: ‘Goodbye, Hugh.’ And I thought: ‘Oh my God. I have no idea what this guy’s name is. I really like him.’”

Ah, bless.

They moved in with each other after about two months, and held an unofficial wedding in 2014, before same-sex marriage in Australia was legal. They legalised their marriage in 2018… “I remember feeling the happiest I’d ever felt with Dan,” says Hugh.  

So far, so rosy. Readers should note, however, that, despite all this professed happiness, Dan and Hugh’s marriage was an “open” one “from the start,” which is to say, not really a marriage at all. The misuse of terms, in attempts to repackage dissatisfaction, inadequacy and commonplace grubbiness, may crop up again.

“And then when we met Charlie. It was like this extension of a really positive energy.”

For instance.

Charles also had a boyfriend, but that, too, was an open relationship,

Why, it’s almost as if there were a pattern, a trajectory. 

I remember one morning, the three of us had just gone to the beach and Hugh had a meeting, so Dan and I drove Hugh back to the studio. And then Dan drove me back to my suburb and dropped me off. I think he leaned in and kissed me. We were parked outside my apartment block and I looked across the street and saw my boyfriend.

Those golden romantic moments, to treasure forever.

Continue reading "Solid Foundations" »