Lockdown Diary - Saturday 30th May 2020

Up at 6 and out of the house at 7:15 on the shopping trail, my once a week ordeal combining my love of queuing with my almost equal love of trying to work out what food we need to ensure that we aren't bored of having the same things week in week out, that we have enough to last until the shopping delivery and that I don't buy a load of things that make us, for which, read me, get fat(ter).

Thrill ride over, I return home to put all the stuff I've just bought away, start the washing and finally get some breakfast and coffee.  It's not as if you can throw in the luxury of buying a hot breakfast and a decent coffee to slightly improve the unrelenting borefest that is shopping nowadays.

Engaged in some FBM with my younger sister to find out where I should send my nephew/her son's birthday card next week. I get a very strange reply which appears to have either undergone an unsuccessful encryption/decryption process or have been typed by someone who was losing the use of a finger with each successive character typed: to be fair there were words and also a lot of letters which probably could be assembled into words, if only you had access to an Enigma machine and the correct settings for the day. Luckily I'm a dab hand at cryptography, so I managed to deduce the intended meaning.  Turns out it was written before getting up. Somewhere in this is an opportunity for a very cheap method of secure messaging, if only I could figure it out. I already have a name for the app: it's called QwikTrype. Con rindher amy sun dance on two concrete billhooks.

Before I know where I am the first wash load is done and it's time for me to hang it out, maaan. To ensure peak efficiency I start the second load before hanging the first out. Poetry in motion.

Carers arrived just after washing went out and, as today's the day for another catheter flush, I got scrubbed up, gloved up and be-apron-ed (yeah, it's not a word, but it is for one day only, I thank you) and set about doing it. Worked well, both barrels, so hopefully it's staved off any need to call out the district nurses, at least until the next flush on Tuesday.

Whilst the wash continues its merry back-and-forth dance, I started looking at the papers, one of my Saturday indulgences.

It's my choice for film night tonight and I already know what I'm going for - a new film on Amazon Prime called 'The Vast of Night', which I heard about on 'Kermode and Mayo's Home Entertainment Service' last night.  It looks to be a very atmospheric mystery film set in 1950s New Mexico.  The trailer's here - see what you make of it.

Spent an hour or so listening to a bunch of new albums this afternoon and, so far, out of five only two have any chance of rising above 'it's OK, but...', and I'm not sure about them either.  In despair I'm going back to the papers. Watch this space. Or don't. Watch another space. In the end it makes no difference.

[It's a bleeding woodpecker! Don't bother with the rest of the question 😴]

The evening approaches and I'm not feeling like listening to any more music. Not wanting to listen to music is one of those early warning signs. I need to lift myself - all these restrictions, silences, and spaces have a tendency to coalesce into an oppressive dense fog that makes everything look, taste, sound, feel and smell non-existent.

Attempted to watch the film, but yet again failed due drowsiness. What I saw was good, so I'm going to watch what I've not seen.  This has prompted action though. It's the anti-depressants that are knocking me out: 2 hours after I've taken the tablet I'm engulfed in a wave of drowsiness.  There's a simple solution: on a Saturday night I'll take it at 9 rather than 7. I don't believe there's any reason why I can't do that. Just means I'll be tired in the early morning, but since I usually get up 2 hours later, around 8 on Sunday, then I think it will fit perfectly.

I was awake enough, though, to go out at around 10 past 10 to look for the SpaceX craft.  I think what we saw was the ISS from about 22:08 until 22:15 or so. It appeared from the west and disappeared towards the South. We waited but didn't see SpaceX unless what we originally saw was it. 

Cleared up then off to bed, didn't read for long 'cos I was knackered.

I had this song lined up for the post already, then when I listened to the lyrics again they seemed apposite.  Jacco Gardner with 'Puppets Dangling' from his debut album, 'Cabinet of Curiosities'. (I've just looked and this is seven years old, Jesus! Where has the time gone?) 

[['And builds a Heaven in Hell's despair']]

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