Lockdown Diary - Thursday 24th September 2020

Even the larks were asleep when I got up at 6 a.m. this morning, and, given the weather outside (cold, wet, windy), I can't blame them.

Usual sequence of events leading to me being at my desk early this morning whilst the cleaner cleans around me, sort of.  In truth I left the room for the safe haven of the living room whilst she cleaned my office.

It's weird when you think you've been up ages, then look at the clock to find it's only 8! It's going to be a long day.

The most exciting thing I've done so far today is install the NHS Covid-19 Track & Trace app.  I'm encouraging my sons to install it too - hopefully it might provide an additional line of defence for my wife, provided enough people install and use it. I was against using the original one that was developed by Johnson's mates, but this one uses the Apple and Google APIs, so I feel my data is safer, and reading the website on data privacy, the controls seem to be reasonable, so I'm happy to use it.

As might be expected, work has dominated the day, though there is one light on the horizon: tonight's Idler Drinks at 6 p.m.

Ahead of the Idler Zoom session I discover that tonight's main guest, the junior barrister Alexandra Wilson, is the subject of quite a media storm - some of which can be found here. 

I've just finished taking part in the Zoom session with Alexandra Wilson. It was a really interesting talk which began with a discussion about the media storm that started from a Tweet she posted. She then went on to describe how she became a barrister, beginning with her school days at an Essex comprehensive, moving through to gaining a place at Oxford to study Philosophy, Politics and Economics and then afterwards cross-training to become a lawyer. She was an excellent speaker, and spoke passionately about her experiences as a young black barrister. She also spoke of the importance of reading to young people if you want to successful in your career. Most of all I was impressed by how down-to-earth and enthusiastic she was, very different from most people's expectations of a barrister, I imagine.  The Idler drinks was arranged weeks ago, long before the media frenzy, and after the drinks with, she was due to be interviewed by 'The New York Times'. The Idler editor, Tom Hodgkinson, chose to end the Zoom chat with the original version of the song 'I Fought The Law' (by The Crickets).  I'd have preferred the version by The Clash, but you can't have everything!

Shortly after the Zoom chat closed son #1 and his gf said 'bye' as they are off out for a meal at the Bosco Lounge.  Just after they left I realised he'd not emptied the dishwasher, so that was my next job before son #2 and I started organising dinner.

As it was just the two of us for dinner we had to find something to watch that was 'standalone': I suggested 'Frankie Boyle Live: Excited For You To See And Hate This'.  Glad I did. It was just what the Doctor ordered - a lot of belly laughs and the odd 'did he just say that?' moment.

Son #1 plus gf arrived home not long after that finished, whilst we we were watching the end of a 'Live at The Apollo' compilation on 'live' TV.  

After that, the usual.

Whilst emptying the dishwasher and sorting the day's wreckage I listened to my playlist on random.  Angel Olsen came up early on with this song, 'New Love Cassette', from the album 'All Mirrors'

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