Lockdown Diary - Saturday 11th July 2020

When I get up and showered, I still feel tired, despite the fact I'm really not doing very much and in direct opposition to the amount of food I'm consuming.

Finding time to read the papers today has not been a problem.  Two wash loads were done but by sons 2 and 3, under my direction, son #1 having gone out to meet his young lady for the day.  

Son #2 left at lunchtime for a barbecue to celebrate a friend's birthday, at which he'd be joined by son #1 at some point later in the evening.

I watched a couple of documentaries on key themes that have shaped the novel: today I watched the one on women and the one on race, saving the third for tomorrow. Both documentaries were interesting but pitched at quite a high-level, I guess you have the choice of going wide or deep when you have an hour, and these chose wide in order to span the past and near present. Tantalising rather than all-consuming.

I also found time to read the book club novel and also 'The Cockroach' - both will be finished soon - and also 'Ulysses', which won't. 'Ulysses' is to be savoured and luxuriated in rather than read in gulps to find out what happens next.

I listened to Paul Weller's new album 'On Sunset' in full as part of my take it easy approach.  Perhaps slightly less experimental than previous recent albums, very much in the soul camp and with a couple of obvious standout tracks, it certainly warrants further listens.

In the evening there was only son #3 and I for film night, so we chose something that the others wouldn't have been desperate to see.  I think it was a made-for Netflix movie starring Forest Whitaker, called 'How It Ends'. It's an apocalyptic road movie which is a not very demanding entertainment: I always wanted to know what happened next, but it's not a film I'd recommend unless you were at a loose end and wanted a distraction that didn't ask that much of you. 

Weather Report. Don't listen to them enough. This is 'Dream Clock' from the album 'Night Passage'.

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