The Meerkat Muse – 6th April 22

April begins with a choice. As it appears I am going to a comic-con event at the end of April, I require an outfit. The leading contenders are:

Generic Meerkat…. or….

Scrooge McDuck.

Now, Generic Meerkat is going to be warm, and the comic-con will be at the ExCel Centre in London, where a great many people will be in attendance. The odds are good for getting hot and sweaty. On the other hand, Scrooge will be warm too, and it looks like wearing shoes will be more difficult with the duck. I also need to consider glasses. I’ve heard that the Meerkat isn’t great with glasses (they’ll steam up easily), but Scrooge’s mask appears to be something that ties around the ears, and the ‘hat’ is merely an extension of the mask. I suppose I could get a top hat but the problem of the glasses would remain.

Why not an actual Timon costume? Well, the issue here is that they are upwards of £100 (some are £500!), and I really don’t want to spend that much. I can’t spend that much.

Do I abandon the costume idea completely? I’ve considered that. I’ve also considered (at the urging of friends from work) to go as Link from the Legend of Zelda series, but I’m not sold on that. Moving on from this dilemma, what else has been going on?

The Awakening

Progress on this (hopefully) last spell of editing has been quicker than I thought. What looked scary and daunting is nowhere near as terrifying as I’d convinced myself it would be. It will be done soon, and then we head on to the next phase of the process.

Gaffes

Sometimes my phone pings me with updates from various apps. The other day it updated me about a movie trailer. However, it was not ‘Fantastic Breasts 3’, as I misread it to be. Awkward…

Weather

Towards the end of March the weather gave us a few nice days. The mornings and evenings were still quite nippy, but the middle of the day pushed 20C, which was pleasant, and we had clear blue skies as well. It didn’t last, and by the last Sunday of March the temperatures dipped again. It seems that early April will be somewhat mediocre weather-wise, but I live in hope that we will get a better summer than we had last year. We are owed a good summer after last year.

The Slap heard across the World

By now we’re all aware that Will Smith did a thing to Chris Rock, because Chris Rock said some things about Will Smith’s wife. I watched social media explode with commentary about this, and all I can say is that I don’t really care. Yes, I understand the undercurrents of the conversation here, but there are more important things happening in the world. Covid has not gone away. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has not stopped. The cost of living crisis continues to affect us.

If I have to comment, then I’ll say that Will Smith reacted badly, albeit to an unnecessary and cruel jibe by Chris Rock. Jokes about what people don’t choose and can’t change are not reasonable. Jada Pinkett Smith was targeted unfairly by Rock. That does not excuse hitting someone, however tempted I might be to do the same in similar circumstances. That’s all I’m gonna say.

Dreams

It wouldn’t be a Muse without exploring my subconscious world, and the other night I had a weird dream (shocking I know). Myself and a group of people were living among the ruins of civilisation, and we seemed to be… smaller? We were surviving off seeds and spices and stuff like that. We were digging tunnels in the soil and we didn’t seem to be much bigger than birds.

There was the dream where I was a schoolgirl (yup, no idea why but there ya go), who was an ordinary student by day, and a spy by night. The problem is that her two worlds started to collide.

I had a dream where I was hooked up to an… erm… milking machine…

The cat and fox dream was directly inspired by recent events. The other night my cat wanted to go out, so I opened the front door. As I did, a fox ran past, and then another fox ran by, stopped, and came up our front path. It didn’t seem the least bit worried by my presence and wasn’t unnerved by my cat hissing. It was only deterred when I waved my arms and shooed it. That night I dreamed there were foxes in the house, and they refused to leave.

There is one more dream, one with deeper meaning than the others…

Ten Years

On the 15th of April 2012 my beloved Nan passed away. I miss her a great deal and I always will. Every now and then I dream of her, and the other night I dreamt that I’d been invited to a school party, that I blew out to see my Nan. In the dream her birthday was coming up and we were getting organised. It was going to be a lovely family do. For unclear reasons we chatted about Formula 1 cars and aerodynamics, which isn’t a subject my Nan was interested in!

Given the impending anniversary, it’s clear why I am dreaming of her now. She was a wonderful woman and I cannot say anything that will do justice to her name. It could be related to this dream, I had another dream where I met my Grandad (who I will have missed for 25 years later this year) down the pub for a beer. I miss them both, I love them both.

Cinema Days

Sonic 2 arrived at the cinema on the 1st of April and so did I, along with my daughter. My wife preferred to see Morbius, but I always preferred Sonic! It was a fun, energetic film that honours the characters, has a bit of chaos ;), and features a great, larger-than-life performance from Jim Carrey. Knuckles provided a fair bit of comic relief but also some intensity, and the characters had an arc – they developed, which is the point of a sequel. There were some nice nods to the video games, and they teased the possibility of a third film.

Whether Carrey reprises his role as Robotnik is up in the air. The veteran actor has announced he is seriously considering retiring, which would be a shame. However the choice is his. I wish him well.

Another famous actor to retire from performing is the legendary Bruce Willis, but not by choice. The star of hits like Die Hard, Armageddon and Unbreakable has been diagnosed with aphasia, a condition that affects language cognition. His focus now is on his loved ones, as it should be.

Food

After the cinema we went to an all-you-can-eat restaurant in town, and I definitely indulged! This is a world buffet, so I had a few different things, and thoroughly enjoyed it! The problem is that I need to be rolled out of there afterwards. I do like a buffet!

Work

I don’t have a lot to say on this subject, except that we continue to get late-comers show up when we’re closing up. It’s a never-ending source of annoyance. Our opening hours are online and you can also phone us to find out what they are. If all else fails they’re on our entrance (not that people tend to pay any attention to what’s written on the door). We don’t serve at the whim of the public – we are working, and when work is done for the day we want to go home and chill out. Retail workers get looked down upon, but we work hard, and we do a lot behind the scenes that goes unrecognised. We’re not at the beck and call of customers once our day is done. In a lot of cases we don’t get overtime and therefore any delays that keep us after closing time eat into our own time. Please people, respect retail workers more!

Back to the Beginning

I’m still grappling with a comic-con costume. As we near the end of this particular Muse there is the above option, but it’s out of stock until late May, and comic-con is the end of May! Why is this not simple?!

Anyway, that’s all for now. Will I find a costume I like in time? Will anything exciting happen between now and the next Muse? Stay tuned!

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