Thanksgiving house party planning 2016

A traditional U.S. Thanksgiving holiday meal

The Photo: A traditional U.S. Thanksgiving dinner of turkey, dressing and gravy, green beans cranberry’s and fruit

Best wishes to my U.S readers: I may be just a tiny bit late in wishing my readers in the U.S. a very happy and safe Thanksgiving as some are already traveling to be with family and friends for the holiday to feast and watch parades and football. Even so, I hope everyone has good weather, travels safely and has a great time! (((hugs))) to you all!

Thanksgiving in the UK and U.S.: In the UK Thanksgiving (as a harvest festival) is of ancient origin, but not an official holiday. It is traditionally held on or near the Sunday of the harvest moon that occurs closest to the autumnal equinox, which this year was September 18^th. Thanksgiving is celebrated in the U.S. on the fourth Thursday in November which this year falls on the twenty-fourth. As I mentioned in a post last year the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, complete with roast turkey, seems to have caught on in the UK, perhaps because everyone likes another holiday.

For those not steeped in U.S colonial history: Thanksgiving in the U.S. is celebrated to mark harvest at the first permanent English colony at Jamestown, Virginia in 1607.  Some would have us think that the first Thanksgiving was held in Massachusetts by the Mayflower Pilgrims who landed in 1620. However, the Mayflower landing was 13 years later than Jamestown.  

House party Planning:  The Super Moon aside (more about that below) I’m looking forward to my Thanksgiving house party at Blackthorn Castle from the 24^th through the 27^th. This year I’m having a Thursday through Monday house party. With a good bit of prior planning dancer friends from the RB will be able to attend as will my wards, Bea, who will come down from Cambridge and two others, Bryony and Claire, from grad school at University College London. I’m pleased to say that they are all bringing boyfriends with them! Too, there will be the usual gentry from surrounding estates and the father and step-mother of Bryony who live in Kent. In all there will be sixteen guest couples which fill the recently fully modernized suites in the new (mid-18th century) wing of the castle.

I’ve approved the menus so we will be having the usual U.S. Thanksgiving holiday fare here at my ancestral home in Wales: roast turkey, stuffing, candied yams, mashed potatoes and gravy, string beans and pumpkin and mince pie. As well as (from my estate) roast tenderloin of wild boar, venison steaks and roast rack of lamb over the course of the several days. One has to limit the size of portions and train extra hard this time of year to prevent gaining weight from all the holidays and heavy meals. But its such fun to have a house full of young people for the Holiday! Cook had asparagus is on the menu; however, I struck it off as it contributes an unpleasant aroma to the urine and genital secretions which many find off-putting.

One can never be sure of the weather here as it comes off the North Atlantic and across the Irish Sea and dumps its moisture as rain in the Cumbrian mountains.  My place is about Latitude: 52°26′59″ N, but the warm ocean current (the Gulf Stream’s northern extension towards Europe, the North Atlantic Drift) moderates our climate so it is typically not as severe as a city at the same latitude in the U.S might expect. The current forecast is for cloudy but dry weather from the 24 – 28 November which would be lovely if that’s what actually happens! Then the men can go out boar and deer hunting while the girls and I take ballet and Pompoir classes, and gossip about boyfriends and fashion. 

Sex Thanksgiving week: My cycle is on schedule and I became fertile on the 21^st and should ovulate on the day after thanksgiving, the 25^th, so there is no way I will be able to safely take my lover(s) totally unprotected during that time as I did on Halloween. I’ll probably wear a tiny silicone Oves cervical cap screwed down tight on my ripe cervix the entire week as Oves can be worn at any depth during dive-sex. The only drawback with Oves is that you can’t use most silicone lubes – other than the specially formulated DiveGel+ - with it which is needed for dive-sex.

The Super Moon in western Wales: The names of full moons in November are, for the Celts it was a Dark Moon and for the English a Hunter’s Moon. A full moon becomes a super moon when it passes very close to Earth on its obit, making it up to 14% bigger and 30% brighter than usual. The point in the obit of the moon at which it is closest to the Earth is known the perigee. This super moon was particularly large because it was the first time that the full moon has come this close to Earth since 1948. There will not be another super moon as big and bright as this one for 18 years until the next very close orbit in 2034.

Viewing the Super Moon in the Cambrian mountains of western Wales, November 14^th – 16^th was problematic. A Met Office spokesman said: “Monday evening and overnight Monday night is the best chance to spot it in Europe.” Although the sky will be cloudy, he said that there are likely to be cloud breaks in Eastern Scotland, North East England and East Wales. If you want to see the moon as it near the full moon stage, why not also go out and look at the sky tonight? The Met Office said that there could be cloud breaks in the same areas as Monday night, but also possibly in South East England for a while.

Unfortunately for western Wales viewers, it turned out that the Met office was correct. The Cambrian mountains of Western Wales was not a good location to view the Super Moon as there was solid heavy cloud cover where I was… Sigh!

The Zika virus and intimate contact

The Aedes aegypti mosquito transmits Zika virus

The Photo: An Aedes aegypti mosquito feeding. Photo by Muhammad Mahdi Karim (www.micro2macro.net) Facebook YouTube - Own work, GFDL 1.2, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11185617.

The Zika virus mosquito (Aedes aegypti) is a mosquito that can be recognized by white markings on its legs and a marking in the form of a lyre on the upper surface of the thorax. The mosquito originated in Africa but is now found in tropical and subtropical regions throughout the world and in 2015 was recognized as starting the Zika virus caused epidemic of babies with microcephaly. The term refers to a rare neurological condition in which children have unusually small heads. In many cases it also means a baby's brain is smaller and may not have developed properly.

Lost Cove, Virgin Gorda and Zika: The BVIs Government haven’t put out much on limiting exposure to the Zika virus which is sure to be in the BVIs by now. My caretaker staff overseen by the estate manager for my good friend Alice Duchess of M**** who has an estate just over the ridge from mine has her staff and mine ensuring there is no standing water where larvae can mature and power foggers are spraying insecticides routinely. I’m now really of two minds about vacationing at Lost Cove. I was so looking forward to several weeks of sun and sand away from the seemingly perpetual rainy skies and gales of the UK. Now it seems I may have waited too late to vacation there this year or until there is a vaccine for Zika. Not that I want to get preggers, but to have to use condoms with my partners while there and for several weeks afterward is such an inconvenience and robs the act of a lot of the skin-on-skin intimacy and the actual exchange of fluids which I so enjoy.

Still, our female staff and guests are cautioned to be sure to use their birth control method(s) correctly since a bite from a Zika carrying mosquito can doom a wanted pregnancy. So far the hierarchy of the Catholic Church in Brazil where the virus seems to have first appeared in the Americas has not officially taken a stand on aborting a Zika damaged pregnancy, although one bishop has said a fetus with severe birth defects is no reason to abort the pregnancy. Easy for him to say! He is undoubtedly the very model of a 19^th centaury prelate poncing about in a dress with his head up his a**!  The Church is going to spring for the care of all the micro cephalic infants that weren’t aborted because abortion is illegal in Catholic South American countries, aren’t they! Oh yes! No one should hold their breath! One hopes that South American political and Catholic Church officials come to their senses and show the compassion they continually preach to their flock in the cases of impaired pregnancies.  

The 2016 Summer Olympic Games: There are reports that health authorities in Brazil (where the pandemic began in South America) are not being cooperative in supplying samples of the virus to other countries researchers. This is said to have something with Brazilian laws! Go figure! Earlier reports of sewage filled swimming competition locations were bad enough! However, with what is known now about the hazards of Zika (unless there is some miraculous scientific breakthrough that eradicates Zika) I can’t imagine the 2016 Olympic Games (the XXXI Olympiad) being held as currently scheduled in Rio de Janeiro from August 5^th August 21^st.  Or if the games are not canceled the huge disappointment to young couples trying to get pregnant canceling attending, or risking infection and birth defects by attending.

Zika can be transmitted through sex: The virus can stay active in blood for about a week and can be transmitted through unprotected intercourse and active virus has now been found in saliva and urine. It is not clear that Zika can be transmitted through saliva and urine, but some authorities in Brazil recommend avoiding kissing. As this is written it is unclear how long secretions from a Zika infected person can transmit the virus to his or her partner. The US CDC is working on an answer. For penile-vaginal intercourse this is making latex or nitrile condoms the safest way to have sex with a person who has been in an area where Zika is known to be active, but saliva and urine as possible virus transmitters makes it a whole new ballgame putting kissing not to mention cunnilingus and fellatio risky as well. Since the HIV virus can penetrate natural lamb condoms they probably aren’t safe to use as protection from Zika either. Nothing has been said (yet) about the virus in perspiration.

Zika is an Arbovirus so there is no quick field test to determine if a person is infected. Blood test intervals of 4 to 14 days can be expected depending on lab load which peaks in summer months.

NHS Zika guidelines can be found HERE

US CDC Zika diagnostic guidelines can be found HERE.

US CDC Zika Q&A can be found HERE

The Costume Club and Zika:  The transmission of Zika through human secretions has caused precautions to be taken with members of my London club in Kensington off Holland Park road. The Costume Club, AKA Clever Cunts), is requiring members to have a current passport showing they have not been in Central or South America or other Zika affected areas for at least three weeks before being allowed to exchange secretions with a Hostess. Otherwise it is using latex or nitrile condoms for every act of anal, vaginal or oral intercourse. The Aedes aegypti mosquito likes warm weather so England in the winter isn’t likely to breed many, but travelers can bring the virus back to the UK. It would be bad enough if a Hostess or two contracted Zika from a member, but since they are all using very effective LARC methods of contraception there is little likelihood of a Hostess becoming pregnant with an infant with serious birth defects. It is thought that once infected with Zika a person builds up immunity and can not be reinfected.

However, an infected Hostess could spread Zika to other club members which is unacceptable. It is far more difficult to be dismissive about a member contracting Zika from a Hostess and giving it to his mistress and/or pregnant wife. The board of governors acted quickly and unanimously on that so while there has been some grumbling, members understand.

The North Atlantic Drift: I’ve got a few minutes to myself so I’m actually missing the desert weather in Las Vegas. Go figure! The forecast for Llanidloes, the closest forecast to the castle, calls for heavy rain for the next three days from all the relatively warm air coming off the Atlantic dropping its moisture as it rises over the Cambrian Mountains. It’s making me want to risk a trip to Lost Cove regardless of the Zika virus.  

The North Atlantic Drift is the eastern branch of the Gulf Stream that turns south along the coast of Europe. The relatively warm waters of the North Atlantic Drift are responsible for moderating the climate of Western Europe, so that winters are less cold than would otherwise be expected at its latitude. Without the warm North Atlantic Drift, the UK and other places in Europe would be as cold as Canada, at the same latitude. For example, without this steady stream of warmth the British Isles winters are estimated to be more than 5 °C cooler, bringing the average December temperature in London to about 2°C, 35.6°F. Due to climate change the west coast of England and Wales is expected to get wetter and warmer over time.