Lockdown Diary - Friday 8th May 2020

Friday. Bank Holiday. Also the 75th anniversary of VE day.  Started the day with a run at around 7:30am before it got too hot!

Back from run and warm down, time to shower and get up to face the day.

Arranged a call with friend who moved to Berlin for 10am, then set about breakfast and getting some washing on. Yeah, I know, how do I keep up this fever-pitch level of excitement? Unbridled hedonistic excess are my middle names, that's how.

Chatted with mate in Berlin, where they are also commemorating VE day, though styled as '...the end of the Second World War and the liberation from National Socialism 75 years ago.' Good to get a perspective from elsewhere in Europe.

We've decided to get a takeaway from our local Italian restaurant tonight to make the most of the day, and that's now ordered with a collection slot at 7:40pm. Only one catch - I'll have be good about opening a bottle of wine until after we get back - reckon I can just about manage it, though it is five hours away.

Lunchtime carer visit came and went though I had to do another catheter flush today which will hopefully hold out until Sunday, at least. The carers are always amused by me changing the catheter as I struggle with the apron whilst wearing gloves - always happy to provide some entertainment.

Next stop meditation then lunch, before I get stuck into reading 'Futuristic Violence & Fancy Suits' for book club.  I'll probably temper that with some of 'Three Women' also for book club, but wholly different, thankfully. 

Not in that much of a reading mood today, though I have progressed 'FV & FS': if I'm to read it by the 25th I need to do get a fair few pages read a day, then a week later I need to have finished 'Three Women', so it's just as well I've finished the 'Wake.

I've read further into 'FV &FS' and also finished the 'Prologue' of 'Three Women': based on what I've read, this is going to be a very interesting and educational book.

In the back of my mind I'd planned to listen to music in the early evening, but when it came to it I had somehow become encased in an air of stygian gloom, which I guess had been building up over the afternoon.  Lockdown is not the cause. There are some fundamental things I need to change and I'm losing my anchor.

At around half seven, son #3 and I got in the car and drove to collect our dinner from the Italian restaurant.  Arrived and as usual our dinner was ready to collect, had a bit of a chat with the manager who knows me from frequent visits when such things were allowed, and seems they are getting reasonable local support, which I was pleased to hear. I do want them to be there when we are free again to dine out.

Returned home to eat it and watch the final episode of 'Devs'.  I guess it was an OK ending but overall I'd say it was a case of '...to travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive...' (if I can slightly re-purpose Robert Louis Stevenson's famous quote), and there was a little linguistic joke about the title of the machine - a mildly amusing conceit.

That was pretty much it for another day - needed to get to bed reasonably early because tomorrow is shopping day.

This is a tune with a very long intro (cue Derek & Clive): the drums don't kick in until about 100 seconds in, then layer builds upon layer, adding to the melancholy theme, which seems to fit today's mood.  This is 'Everything You Do Is A Balloon', by Boards of Canada from the 'Hi-Scores EP' and a long-time favourite.


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