Lockdown Diary - Thursday 25th June 2020

After a very hot night, another hot day in prospect and I'll be stuck in doors in front of the laptop for the whole day. Ho hum.

I've received another letter from the hospital, this time asking me to go and have a Covid swab taken next week, just in time for my operation. 

My wife also received a letter co-signed by Matt Hand2cock, telling her she can stop shielding from 1st August, whilst saying she remains on the shielding register and has to practice full social distancing from then, unless they change the guidance. A four page letter which seems just to be a carefully worded way of saying that you can stop shielding but if you catch Covid afterwards, it's your fault not ours. 

Work has obviously taken up much of the day, punctuated by the odd phone call and visitor.  A friend kindly popped by to pick up and post son #3's latest set of documents for Student Finance.  Hopefully these are the last.

Work ended just before 6pm, in time for tonight's 'Idler Drinks with...' which features the zoologist Lucy Cooke and musicologist Sandy Burnett.  Lucy Cooke's conversation was fascinating and entertaining, ranging across subjects as diverse as sloths (some Christians referred ironically to the sloth as ‘Perico Ligero’ or ‘Nimble Peter’), Colombia's problem with randy male hippopotamus that have been let loose from Pablo Escobar's personal menagerie, and the hidden, but less cuddly, true nature of penguins. Look here for an interesting article by Lucy on sloths.

Evening was then upon me: helped son #2 with dinner then sat and watched episode 2 of the second series of 'Altered Carbon'.

Like a discarded iced lolly, I retire to melt into sleep.

I've been quite impressed by the music of the latest in a long line of Australian psych-pop bands, namely, Bananagun. Here's the rather summery 'Out of Reach' from their debut album, 'The True Story of Bananagun', which is out tomorrow.

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