Lockdown Diary - Monday 28th September 2020

A fun-packed Monday ahead: four different activities planned for the day ahead.  I'm looking forward to it but it does mean the rest of the week (and beyond) will be quiet.

First off meditation at 7:30 a.m. with Talking Therapies.  It was a good session though I do still often get caught up in 'sticky' thoughts (for the avoidance of doubt that means thoughts that stick, however briefly, and that you start to resolve).

Yoga at 10:00: another good practice with a few rather difficult moves, i particular lifting and straightening one leg whilst in a squat.  I'm beginning to think the human body was not intended to do some of these things. Nevertheless I persevere. The yoga teacher can do it, so it must be possible. In theory.  This'll teach me to do a job that's mostly involved sitting on my arse for 40 years 😂🤣😂

After yoga finished it was time to get changed and make some lunch ready to head off for my next activity, a walk with some school friends over at Stanford Dingley.

Home from the walk. Met up with three friends, plus dog named Merlin, at Rushall Farm and then headed off for a 5-mile walk through the fields and woodlands of West Berkshire. Part way round we stopped in some woods for our lunch - I don't think I've had a picnic lunch for ages - but it's always good to eat al fresco. (That made me think of a joke, but I think I'll keep that to myself on this occasion.) Near the end of the walk we made a slight detour to stop off at The Old Boot Inn for a well-earned drink before the final leg back to the starting point. It was a great afternoon and enjoyable walk - the weather was kind to us too.  We'll have to do something similar again, maybe even getting up to the six person maximum. A big thank you to A who planned it and to A, J and P for the company.

Home again and time to clear up the debris from the boys' lunch and a few other chores before this evening's Sci-Fi book club.

Our discussion of 'The Time Machine' was lively and interesting, with some varied views on aspects of the novel, including the scientific and social context of the novel.  Overall it was widely liked and for me, having not read it since I was a teenager, there were elements of the story, especially the journey to the furthest future of planet Earth, which were more surprising and disturbing than I remembered.  Probably the fault of the films.

The end is in sight. Moon.

Several years ago I was down the pub with a large group of friends (remember when you could do that) and we were talking about music. Someone said, do you remember the song 'I'm In Love With A German Film Star'? I did, but the follow-up question was, do you remember who it was by? We all agreed it was a great song, but none of us could recall the artist.  We racked our brains and eventually someone got it: The Passions. If it wasn't obvious by now, that is today's song choice.  It's from an album called 'Thirty Thousand Feet Over China', though in my collection it's on the absolutely wonderful box set 'Kats Karavan: The History of John Peel on the Radio', full of gems like that from across John Peel's radio career.

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