Lockdown Diary - Wednesday 17th June 2020

What a start to the day! One hour of yoga, starting at 7am - 30 minutes of breathing exercises with movement to warm up in preparation for 30 minutes of Surya Namaskar. Talk about a workout! We're going to do the same thing on Sunday, the Summer Solstice, at 7:30am. In theory we should do 108 rounds rather than 60...we'll see!

After yoga, I needed to keep moving, so I went fro a brisk walk and posted a Father's Day card to my Father-in-Law.  

The morning was spent in calls the the hospital admin team regarding my upcoming surgery - questions about medication and the rules for self-isolating which are pretty strict (we all have to self-isolate for two weeks or I have to shut myself away from everyone for two week!) and calls to the dietitian about an upcoming 'experiment' to change my wife's PEG feed from overnight to during the day, to see if it helps with some of the side-effects.

Today's post brought the latest issues of Private Eye and WIRE along with another letter from the hospital, this time about attending a pre-op assessment next week. More phone calls required.

This afternoon I started reading 'Ulysses' again: I've not read it in full for years and decided at this year's Bloomsday that since I'd re-read 'Finnegans Wake' this year, I really ought to re-read 'Ulysses'.  Again I've chosen an edition I've not read before, this one based on the Odyssey Press 1939 edition, this one published by Alma Classics with extensive notes by Sam Slote, of Trinity College, Dublin. The plan is to read a couple of pages (or more, as time and the text dictates), aiming to finish by the end of the year.  If I average nearer 4 pages a day, that should easily be achievable. Sounds easy, but I will be reading other books at the same time.

I've also tidied up my goodreads book lists: according to it I'm currently reading 12 books, but actually I'm only actively reading 4 (probably really 3) of them, so I've parked the other 8 back into 'To Read'.  Feels better not to think I'm trying to read 12 books, just got to make sure the number doesn't creep up again: I do want to read 'The Anatomy of Melancholy' by Richard Burton, but it's huge and I really shouldn't contemplate starting it whilst I'm reading 'Ulysses'.

Went crazy and watched two episodes of 'Altered Carbon' (it's the only way there's any progress in the story!) in the evening before the usual Wednesday-night bins ritual. I should write a book on the subject called 'The Joy of Bins' - I'm part way there as I already have a beard 😉😉

So many songs to choose from! Trying to capture the spirit of the day, or at least, the spirit of how I feel today. Currents, under currents, under yet more currents. All flowing in different directions. Any one of which could bubble to the surface, swell rising. This is one of those songs. Contains the lines 'You're so sugar sweet, You may as well have had 'Kick Me' Fastened on your sleeve', which always seemed to have some deeper meaning for me.  If that hasn't given it away, then I can simply say, this is R.E.M. with 'All The Way To Reno' from 'Reveal'

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