Lockdown Diary - Thursday 3rd September 2020

Another early start, but not quite as hectic as yesterday, though I was still up, showered, dressed and exercised by 6:50 a.m., with seconds to spare before our cleaner arrived.

I still feel quite strange writing 'our cleaner', as I don't think I'd ever have imagined I'd find the need to have a cleaner.  The upheavals of the last four years, culminating in the complete 'life reset' of 2018, mean that I have a different view of the world and especially my inconsequential bit of it.  Having a cleaner come in once a week contributes towards reducing my stress level and supports, even if in a small way, my continuing level of sanity, wherever that lies.

The bulk of the day has been spent on the training course, which both limits what I do but also consumes most of my brain capacity so I don't have time to think about much else.

One bright spot is the return of the Idler drinks Zoom chats this evening.  This evening the guest is the actress Hayley Atwell, who I'd never heard of, though after consulting IMdB I discover I have seen on TV and film. 

What a glorious return! Hayley turns out to have lots of interesting things to talk about (lockdown activities, the new Mission Impossible films, Tom Cruise, Idling in general, and more) and is also very easy on the eye, if I may put it that delicately.  The average age of the attendees was significantly reduced too - there were about 280 to 290 attendees (so by no means a record) - which unusually included a lot of younger women, apparently drawn to the chat as they were clearly huge fans of Hayley.  She obviously has a large following and seems to be a role model for women across the gender spectrum, which was good to see.

There was one sad note to proceedings though: Tom Hodgkinson announced that David Graeber (author of 'Bullshit Jobs' amongst others, activist in the BLM movement and general supporter of social change) had died this week.  He had been an excellent guest at an Idler drinks in July and he'd met Tom and Victoria for dinner a mere two weeks ago. Life, eh?

The session closed out by playing 'Anarchy in the UK', probably one of the greatest singles ever released. It also seems to be a fitting tribute to David Graeber.

Son #3 is off out to an unexpected party - that's the life! - so the evening was reorganised around the remaining four of us (three plus guest).

We watched some bollocks on Netflix about 'most wanted criminals' (don't know what it was called, and don't really care), which was better than staring at the wall, but only just. It did provoke some conversation, which is something. Some of the arrest/raid footage did feature a lot of scantily-clad professional women, who were laid on (literally, potentially, I guess) for the delight of the criminals gathered, though to be honest it all seemed deeply sad that lives are so easily wasted. No doubt there were far darker stories to be told, but they were mere adjuncts to the criminal activities. Sometimes you can have too much reality.

An easy thing would be to choose 'Anarchy in the UK', but much as I love it, I don't want to wear it out. Not only that, I don't generally like to take the easy option, at least not when it comes to music.  I've had this album a while now, but I don't think I've picked anything from it here yet, despite it being rather good. The track I've chosen opens with a guitar figure that I keep expecting to turn into George Harrison's 'My Sweet Lord' (no bad thing), but thankfully it doesn't. This is the title track from Paul Weller's recent album 'On Sunset'. [In recent years his restlessness has seen him experimenting with musical styles which has been a welcome change from his dire 'dad rock' wilderness period. (All very wonderfully well played, but boring as fuck)  This album has a more soulful groove, which is cool - maybe echoing some of the best of The Style Council (which I loved), but in a more modern stylee.]

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