Ahhh... work over and done with until next Wednesday 8-)

But what am I doing with the time I hear you cry? Oh, a little bit of this, a little bit of that... planting potatoes in the allotment, washing, maybe get round to finishing off that Equal Marriage consultation, Eastercon.

Yep. It's Easter which means Eastercon - Olympus 2012 - the British Science Fiction Convention. I'm particularly looking forward to Guests of Honour George R R Martin (Game Of Thrones! Game of Thrones! Game of Thrones!) and Cory Doctorow (after missing ORGCon).

Warrington is having a Pride event.

I'll say that again: Warrington is having a Pride event.

Warrington, where the sole gay pub survived less than a year.

Warrington, which has been described as the place "where Cosmopolitan is just a magazine title".

That Warrington. My Warrington.

And I'm a little bit excited, a little bit proud.

And a little bit frustrated.

Later this month the government should be releasing a consultation on marriage equality - that is a proposal to allow same-sex couple to have their union recognised as marriage through the same laws as marriage. Well, nearly... it's likely to be only civil registrars, and not religious officials, who can officiate but it's damn closer than what we have at the moment. It's this proposal for equal civil marriage which has got the Church of England and the Catholic Church (the leaders and official stance, not the individual members) currently frothing at the mouth.

OK, a month since my last batch of paragraph-length 'reviews'... only six things to review as I ended up not going to two gigs (Django Django got re-arranged and I was busy on the new date *cries* and Sleigh Bells I just couldn't be bothered with after listening to their new album and looking at their support act on YouTube). What I have got though is wonderfully diverse in style: a musical, a play, a band, a comedy show, a gig and a cabaret show.

Over the past couple of weeks, some very senior figures in the Church of England and

So, the Government is possibly maybe removing sanctions from all stages and programmes within JSA which have been branded as "workfare". But sanctions and compulsion are not the only problems here - in fact, they are only a cherry on top of the problems which make up these programmes.

• By using people on JSA to work up to 30 hours, employers are effectively getting an employee for free - subsidising business through the benefits system is not what I pay my taxes for
• The National Minimum Wage is being flaunted

Another two weeks and another three performances. This fortnight has seen comedic theatre, beautiful ballet and 2012's inaugural gig!

My 2012 theatre year may only be two weeks old, but it's already given me three mightily impressive productions: Midnight, The Ballad of Halo Jones (both part of LassFest at the Lass O'Gowrie) and The Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor (at Unity Theatre in Liverpool).

I remember as a kid, I had a record player. The only record I can remember from my "collection" at the time was a Mr Men album with a red cover (I think it was "The Mr Men Songs" from 1979, but don't hold me to it). But CD came along before my love of music was confirmed and so the vinyl went.

OK, I have a week off next week and intend, in between catching up on OU stuff, to re-invigorate this site. What this probably means is me deciding to use a new theme, fiddling around with it a lot and not being happy with anything and so reverting to this (at least no-one will get lost). But a site (non-)makeover isn't enough. I need to actually blog some too.