Lockdown Diary - Sunday 15th November 2020

I'm going to have a slower day than normal today, as my right hip is very painful, so much so that I've had to resort to the codeine phosphate tablets, something I swore I not take again after the previous side effects. Unfortunately, needs must - none of the other painkillers, alone or in combination, seem to have any effect on this pain. Let's see how the codeine does.

Had breakfast with a side-order of codeine and it turns out that the codeine can deaden the pain, which is both good news and bad.  Good news because there's some relief, bad news because I really don't want to take them unless absolutely necessary.  I may take one much later, but no more than two today.

Chores

After lunch I did my usual read of the papers, after which I decided to phone my elder sister to see how things were in the northern territories (West Yorkshire) and environs.

We've planned to have a takeaway from the new Turkish restaurant that's just opened at the nearby shopping centre: we order it for a 7 p.m. delivery. I was trying to work out why the boys were so keen to eat early and now I've found out: son one has agreed to take part it some computer game tournament that starts at 8, so he needs to finish before then. Son two is going to join him so I will be left to my own devices. We watch an episode of 'Out Of Her Mind' with Sara Pascoe and then head for the hills.

What shall I do? I've lost the urge to listen to music (I did finish listening to 'Sunburst Finish' earlier but was interrupted by son one asking, in that way that's less a question, more a statement, 'Isn't the music a bit loud?'  I think that's a healthy state of affairs when your children think you're playing music too loud - you must be doing something right!) or to read (see blogs passim), so something to watch fits the bill.  In the end I choose a documentary I bought a few months ago called 'Journeys to the Edge of Consciousness' which is about 'three psychedelic trips that changed Western culture forever'.

'Journeys to the Edge of Consciousness' was very interesting and was an unusual mix of animation (for the readings by the three explorers of the mind) and interviews with psychologists, scientists and others.  I shall probably watch it again or maybe read Leary and Watts and re-read Huxley on the subject.

When that ended I found there was a documentary of BBC Four about Ronnie Scott's jazz club in London, which I decided to watch until I started to drift into the arms of mirtazapine.

Time for this: Asian Dub Foundation featuring Stewart Lee (on sampled vocals) with 'Coming Over Here' from the recent album 'Access Denied'

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