Stroppy is ...Brighton, Cats, Mood swings, JD and Scrabble... apparently !

Jim has given me five words that remind him of me. The point of this meme is to take them and “waffle” about what they mean to you.

Seems a bit like Just a Minute, except repetition and deviation is allowed !

So what words did my mate Jim come up with? Well, they are Brighton, Cats, Moods swings, JD and Scrabble! What, no fishnets or DMs ?

Hmm. That conjured up an image of a mad moody cat woman swigging on a bottle of Jack Daniels, with her signed Dolls4Jim pic on the wall, as she played scrabble on Facebook. Not far off;-)

OK, lets waffle...

Brighton

I spent most of my adult life in London, but have lived in Brighton now for over ten years.
What do I like about it? Well I like that its very LGBT friendly, especially my part of town. How often do you walk up to the train station at 7 in the morning and pass a gaggle of drag queens in full slap coming home from a night out , heels in hand?
Its the first place where I felt comfortable and at home.
I like living in a part of town that is populated with bars and sex shops , small independent cafes and generally an air of anything goes.
I like that there is lots of good live music and I can walk to see it in small venues .
I love being near the sea, preferably in winter when the waves are crashing .

What I don't like? Well woolly thinking muesli munching , crystal clutching , reiki types who name their kid Chakra . Yep too many new agey people who are extremely gullible and easily impressed. Who needs religion when you have a new generation of the superstitious.
Much as I love the eccentricity, the woolly headed healing Henri's who wear baggy tie dyed trousers and live off alfalfa I could do without. Mind, I don't think they would like my 'negative aura ' either. Luckily I live in a part of town that they don't tend to inhabit.
I also don't like it when its really crowded with drunken daytrippers or hen parties screeching at 4 in the morning on their way back to their B&B.
Oh and I don't like arrogant cyclists that ride on the pavement or the wrong way up a street and then swear at me for being in their way.

But generally I love Brighton, although I also spend half my time in Hackney, and really couldn't stand somewhere too normal.

Cats

People tend to be cat or dog people. I started out as the latter, as a child we had rescue dogs, including a greyhound. They are lovely dogs and like racehorses, unless they are winners they do not have a happy retirement .

I ended up with cats as my ex liked them and we rescued some feral kittens when we were students. Those cats followed us into a number of squats and later more salubrious surroundings . They lived until 15 and 17 .

I now have two rescue cats, Bob and Beryl, who have made a number of appearances here, including live cat blogging during the US Presidential elections.

I am well aware of the stereotype of child free women with cats (not childless, its a positive choice !), but as I say I got into them via a man and was a dog person. I don't treat them like babies or sit there spoon feeding them while talking to imaginary people and they are most certainly not a substitute. I think I'm better with animals sometimes than people, I don't seem to be able to offend them and they are trusting and affectionate . Its people who fuck up the world, not cats.

Mood swings

Pah, now why did Mr Jepps pick that ?? Well yeah I can be arsey and stroppy, hence my blog name. As an ex Mental Health social worker I am well aware of the diagnosis of bi - polar, but I'm more common or garden drama queen, but not all the time, honest.

Not so sure about mood swings as such, but changeable and can veer from upbeat to down . I suppose I care , about this world generally and people I love. That can make me happy, sad and angry at times. It also means I perhaps can't be as cold and theoretical as some on the left. Yeah, I may not be as up on Marx as others, but my politics came from a childhood where we were often poor, being homeless and seeing my family fucked over by the system.

JD

Ah, which one ? As regular readers know I was part of the campaign to get Jim Denham elected leader of the Labour Party and a founder member of Dolls4Jim. Jim has a special place on this blog and many disappointed people google mud wrestling and thongs, only to find a post about him.

Jack Daniels, the other JD,well its probably my favourite tipple and one that I came to quite late, having worked my way through many spirits. I think I like the association with Keith Richards , but I started drinking it when in New York. I was there with an ex and got drinking it in bars.He went home and I stayed on a few days more and got trapped there 9/11. I spent much of that day in various bars drinking it watching the news and talking to people.

Scrabble

Well, its really facebook wordscraper. I haven't actually played scrabble proper for many years. I must admit its quite addictive . I have three regular people I play with, that's Jim J, George Binette and Charlie Pottins,  I do also play people I find from the 'join table' board, though some have other types of games in mind !

Well that's my waffle . If anyone else wants to do this add your name in the comment box and I'll come up with five words, though it makes sense if I know you a little, even virtually .