Lockdown Diary - Saturday 26th September 2020

Son #2 and I started the day with food shopping, a tedious chore made tolerable by: the company of son #2; the return of the bread stall to the market; and coffee and a bacon roll. I didn't witness any trollies piled high with bog rolls but did notice that the species of paper that I would normally buy was all gone, something I haven't noticed since the shelves returned to normal after the previous phase of stockpiling.  At times I do seriously wonder about people.

After returning home I engaged in a cavalcade of capers of the tedious kind, culminating in washing on the line and lunch.

After lunch I set aside time to read the papers and then progress H.G. Wells, 'The Time Machine': it's more a novella than a novel, but I do need to finish it by Monday evening in time for the Sci-Fi sub-group of book club. I probably won't continue with both Sci-Fi and main book club after this as the demands of work have increased and I have less time to read. If something I really want to read gets chosen (as when 'Under The Skin' and 'The Handmaid's Tale' were chosen earlier this year) I may change my mind!

The day had started out with some sun, though when hidden by clouds it felt quite cold, but as the afternoon progressed rain clouds were gathering to the north.  I noticed rain upon the window and had to bring the washing in hastily, some things destined for the tumble drier the rest to be hung up to dry upstairs.

At 6 p.m. I was attending an online session of the Henley Literary Festival.  This was to be an interview and discussion between authors David Mitchell (of 'Cloud Atlas' fame rather than the TV comedian) and John Boyne, who I must confess I'd not heard of {Note of much embarrassment: turns out he is the author of the novel 'The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas', which I have heard of.}  They were there to discuss their latest novels and also what they had written and where the inspiration for their work comes from.  Thankfully it was quite a lively and engaging discussion - both writers talking freely without long pauses and finding interesting things to say. The hour passed very quickly and I think I might like to read 'Utopia Avenue' (with some reservations) but I am not sure about 'A Traveller At The Gates Of Wisdom' - perhaps I have had an overdose of time travel of late.

Tonight's film is the choice of son #1 and it's 'The Old Guard' which stars, and was produced by, Charlize Theron and released this year. I've read the synopsis on Netflix and I must admit I'm not entirely sold, but we'll see.

The film is over now. It wasn't as bad as I feared: it was an OK action film with a few well-telegraphed plot twists. I guess it's intended as pure entertainment, which is fine, but I never really engaged with it, there's no real character development and, to me at least, it was just run-of-the mill. Don't get me wrong, I like a really good action movie, but it seemed to fall between two camps: clearly the story is intended to be the start of a series of films concerning the main characters, so they tried to establish some kind of interplay between them as a basis for future films, but this meant it was not quite a full-on action film, like say, a typical 'Mission Impossible', where the main characters are already established and there is a formula. Nevertheless, there are worse ways to spend an evening, so it gets a grudging 'it was OK' from me.

A song that needs no introduction: The Von Bondies, 'It Came From Japan' from the album 'Lack Of Communication'. It says 'Play Loud' on the tin.

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