Lockdown Diary - Sunday 23rd August 2020

Sunday has followed the same pattern as Saturday, so I shan't be listing all the tedious jobs I've been doing / have done.

Things are pretty much as they were yesterday, from my perspective.  Won't be repeating that either. I think aspects, or rather the consequences, of lockdown are getting to me. 

The boys have all gone out - two walking in the South Downs and one at a friend's birthday barbecue.

I've had calls from both sets of inlaws and also one from my 'big' sister.  I'm not feeling the urge to elaborate further.

I did manage to read The Observer and also finish the 'Scylla and Charybdis' chapter of 'Ulysses' - 'Wandering Rocks' is next.

Evening change of plans: son #1 is not returning from the walk tonight, instead he's stopping over at his gf's house, which is in the town their walk started from.  Son #2 will be later home than planned, which leaves me and son #3 to empty the dishwasher, make the dinner etc.

Tom Waits. 'Blue Valentine' from the album of the same name.


[[]]  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

Love, Poetry and Revolution - Wednesday 6th November 2024

Image
Not a great morning to wake up to. Unbelievable, yet true. Moving the subject several thousand miles East, all the news that's fit to print. I have a stinking cold (not COVID, I've checked) and am thus feeling rather factual, telegram-style, so this post may be short. E continues her slow decline, but at least we seem to have got her pain management under control, mostly, at least.  As one of her carers said, "...at times she's too strong for her own good." Hard as this is to see in black and white, her suffering needs to come to an end. There is no purpose or gain from its continuation. For anyone. Q and I spent an enjoyable week in Amsterdam, my first real visit to the city and country. It was great to spend time with family and friends.  We did a lot of walking, saw a lot of sights to remember and ate some wonderful food with delightful company. I would love to go again, there's so much we didn't see.  Just before heading to Amsterdam, I saw High Llamas
Read more

Tales From The Crypt - Tuesday 17th May 2022

Image
Started the day with an early morning brisk walk.  Hit my 30-minute target and managed to combine it with a joyous chat to set me up for breakfast and work. The working day has been going reasonably well, or at least it was until an expected occurrence threw a spanner in the works. My focus now is on spanner removal. Chicken casserole for dinner tonight and as it requires almost an hour of cooking time I've decided to start it early.  I've also decided I'm bored of preparing potatoes, so tonight, Matthew, I'll be doing couscous. Get you! I ate alone while watching a couple more episodes of 'Undone', which I'm really enjoying. It's very different and suitably strange. Right up my street. Cleared up, went upstairs, got ready for bed and sleep by way of papers and conversation. Working Men's Club / 'Widow' / 'Fear' [[I keep hearing this and it has wormed its way into my brain]]
Read more

The January Long List

So, the next step in my experiment is to identify a list of music to listen to in January 2011.  This really isn’t going to be difficult as a list has been bubbling under since well before Christmas.  At the moment it’s a fairly long list – a long list I need to whittle down to just five (or maybe six – the rules are not that prescriptive) candidates for my album of the month. This post heralds the full list of hopefuls, possibles and downright eternal optimists that are fighting it out to be included in my January short list. I’m sure you’re wondering how I get to hear the albums in the first place:  any way I can!  In practice this means if it’s not on Spotify , the band’s / artist’s My Space page or streamed somewhere ahead of release ( Pitchfork , the guardian music blog or wherever) it’s not that likely to make the shortlist. After all, one of the rules is that the album must be heard in full, more than once, in order to stand a chance of becoming album of the month. That way
Read more

Lockdown Diary - Wednesday 26th August 2020

Image
First day of annual leave this week, but still up at 6:25 a.m. in order to be ready for pranayama yoga session at 7.  I missed it last week owing to the training course I was on for work: I really notice the difference when I've not done it (and when I have!) After breakfast I got myself organised to visit the shopping precinct to post a letter and visit the bank: son #3 has a couple of cheques to pay in, so I invited him to join me, which he did. Whilst there I grabbed a flat white from Costa and a copy of the latest issue of 'Wire' magazine. Such is the excitement of life at the moment. Strange facts: son #2 informed me the sieve had broken when he was separating the dust from the last of the Rice Krispies he was having for breakfast. Initially I wondered how large a portion he was having, but, on looking at the handle and how it was fixed to the rim of the sieve, I wondered how it lasted so long. At least it hadn't broken when I'd been rinsing rice. I have ordere
Read more

I’ve forgotten more than I remember….

Image
…which is probably just as well. Apropos of absolutely nothing, some random misfiring of synapses prompted me to give another airing to “Hermit of Mink Hollow”, Todd Rundgren’s first 100% solo album on which he plays all the instruments and sings all the vocals (1972's "Something/Anything?" fails to qualify as his first 100% solo effort because one of the 4 sides is a live-studio effort featuring assorted musicians and backing singers.) The album was released in 1978 and is named after a valley near Woodstock, New York, where Todd set up a recording studio and recorded this album. Like all of Todd’s solo albums post-1973’s“Todd” double album, there are a couple of seriously duff tracks but in spite of that it’s probably the most consistently good album he’s recorded after the creative peak of the early 1970’s.    The album – at least in its vinyl form – was split into “The Easy Side” and the “The Difficult Side” – though I can’t decide if that’s a joke: tracks on
Read more