Lockdown Diary - Friday 6th November 2020

Up and out quickly this morning to get to Boots and pick up a repeat prescription before work and, having done that, I decided it would be rude not to grab a coffee, so I picked up a flat white to kick start the day.

As luck would have it, because this meant I started work later (Boots doesn't open until 8:30 a.m.), I returned to discover an email in my inbox which needed me to urgently review a plan and propose some dates, partly because I don't work Mondays and am, therefore, the cuckoo in the nest. My not working Mondays kicks the plan out by 6 days and also then runs into my December annual leave, which starts on the 15th. I think it's going to be a case of watch this space...

After an hour or so of intense work, things took on a more even pace.  

I had a brief interlude whilst I went for my 30 minutes or so of brisk walking - I've done over two and a half hours this week, so far, which is the NHS recommended target for a week. Hopefully I will walk tomorrow and Sunday, which means I should exceed the target by more than an hour.

I finished work for the week at around 6 p.m., not long after the carers left for the day, and decided I needed to listen to music, loud. 

After about an hour of listening to Neil Young & Crazy Horse live (the double CD, 'Weld', which is absolutely excellent), Siouxsie and the Banshees and a few tracks from the new Gorillaz album, I started to make dinner.

Creamy tuna pasta bake is tonight's recipe, which I started making on my own, for a change. It was all in the baking dish and ready to go in the oven when son #2 came down to help. He insisted on helping clear up the mess whilst I played my playlist on random and the dish cooked for 40 minutes or so.

After much indecision we chose to start watching the French series 'The Last Wave' ('La Dernière Vague'), which had an intriguing opening episode.  After that we watched a bit Annie Nightingale on BBC Four before clearing off to bed.

As promised, the Talking Heads version of 'Take Me To The River' from the album 'More Songs About Buildings And Food'. There is something about this version that is so powerful, maybe it's the rhythmic insistence of it coupled with David Byrne's vocals which have an intensity that matches the desire in the lyrics.


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