Lockdown Diary - Monday 17th August 2020

Monday morning and up just after 6 a.m. - I've meditation at 7:30 and yoga at 10:00 and I need to eat breakfast before 7:30,  so no time to muck about: Showered, exercised and dressed by 7. 

Felt really calm, present and generally really good after meditation  - set me up nicely for yoga at 10.

In the meantime, a variety of small chores and tedious things to do ahead of yoga.  

Yoga over, and another good start to the week - it's a shame it's raining, I feel like getting out and walking now.  I'm itching to re-start running but I'm pretty sure my knees aren't ready just yet.  I still haven't got my walking back to the level I was at before my enforced lockdown pre- and post-operation.

Talking of which, I got a letter from the hospital about my next outpatient appointment, which is in November. Enclosed with that was a copy of the letter the consultant wrote to my GP about the additional meds I have to take, in the letter he describes me as '...this delightful gentlemen...', and surprisingly there are no swear words as prefixes or suffixes.  I'm still struggling with the idea of being described in that way. Come to think of it, both words don't sit that easy on my shoulders.  I'm beginning to think this could turn out to be a very strange week.

Amongst all the general stuff I have to organise, I did find time to read more of 'Kindred' and also 'Ulysses'.  Had hoped to find time to do more of my online Jazz course, but didn't.

Tonight is Sci-Fi sub / splinter group of the main book club and so at 7:30 p.m. or thereabouts I joined the Zoom session to discuss 'Machines Like Me' by Ian McEwan.

Had a lively discussion of the book, with some divergent views on both the alternative history angle as well as the amount of technical detail about Artificial Intelligence (AI).  Overall it crystallised my views on the book, which I'll write a review of tomorrow, though I haven't changed my view that it was a good novel.

We finished quite early compared to some evenings and, as I had lots to do (not least because it's back to work tomorrow) and need to get up early-ish, I was quite happy to do so.

Another day winds inexorably to a close...

'Shine A Light' was one of my favourite songs / raps from a few years back, but until now I'd never seen the video for it.  Wow! It's certainly odd, though I guess I shouldn't be surprised as there's nothing about Shabazz Palaces which is mundane.  The video smacks of Folk Horror tropes and reminds me a bit of the film 'Midsommar' - see what you think! It's from the album 'Quazarz: Born on a Gangster Star' and features Thaddilac on vocals.


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