The Leewit @ghost_bird@witches.town

I’m kind of grumpy and anxious today, though, so perhaps I shouldn’t be trying to read difficult books.

I think it’s the dogged insistence on reading every text as a perfect expression of the intellectual life of its milieu but also, somehow, entirely without specific context or relation to other works.

Auerbach’s “Mimesis” is starting to get on my nerves - though it’s more a feeling than anything I can justify rationally.

SWP paper-sellers hanging out with the picket line today, including a bloke who’s twice threatened to beat me up. I feel like the limits of my solidarity are being tested here. Nor am I very thrilled by how many of my union reps and activists they’re friendly with.

(In fairness, I should say I was tearing down their posters when they threatened to beat me up. They’re bullies but they don’t go off unprovoked.)

@lemurchild ✨💃🏻💃🏻💅🎉

@hollyamory C) The outsourced contractor who manages the ceremonies for the council, doing their best to double-dip.

@bb I recommend it, tbh.

@bb That’s a major reason why I left Twitter. TERFBlocker helps a lot, but there’s always someone who has to use a screenshot instead.

@Emerald Amen.

@Emerald If you’re here for at least seven years out of nine, you start paying UK tax. (The Schengen thing might cover that, I guess?) And you start paying tax if you transfer money to a UK bank account, which might (or might not) be harder to avoid than it sounds. Official details here, but you might want to find a US expats forum for advice:
https://www.gov.uk/tax-foreign-income/non-domiciled-residents

@Emerald Looks like there’s some weird tax stuff that could trip you up in the long term, but I can’t see an immediate short-term flaw. (Though I’m not a lawyer/standard disclaimer/etc.)

@Emerald Don’t know about Schengen but it looks like the UK limit is 180 days as long as you’re not working or studying, so that sounds like it would work.

@Emerald That’s right, if it’s just a short visit. You can check here if you haven’t already:
https://www.gov.uk/check-uk-visa

UCU (University staff) strike seems to be pretty solid at my place, but I think I’m going to print up some copies of this SolFed “why you shouldn’t cross picket lines” flyer to hand out tomorrow.

http://solfed.org.uk/sites/default/files/uploads/dont_cross_picket_lines_a5.pdf

Home from picketing to find the water’s still out. Thames Water have been promising “back to normal in the next few hours” for about twelve hours now.
I have some sympathy for their plea of widespread leaks caused by last week’s cold weather, but I’d have more if they weren’t notorious for skimping maintenance for decades since they got privatised.

Back on the picket line this morning. At least the snow’s gone.

@Emerald Welcome!