Lockdown Diary - Thursday 17th December 2020

Cleaner's here, I've been up, exercised and dressed for over an hour.  The first part of today's mission, should I choose to accept (yeah, right!), is to give her a card and present.  We have a brief discussion of Christmas Eve, a week today, and I say we'll not need her to come that day - it gives her a break (does anyone want to be cleaning someone else's house on Christmas Eve?) and it means everyone can have a lie in. Well, when I say everyone, I really mean everyone except me.  Plans have yet to crystallise, but I'm probably going to be making the starter for Christmas Day's dinner, plus I'll probably have other shit to do. My plan from this far away will to be ready to chill by the evening. What was that? Did I just see...? No, it can't have been? Come on, pigs cannot fly, you know that.

Where was I?  'The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men / Gang aft agley'

Cleaning continues against a backdrop of more Christmas stuff, but I have to pop out to post cards to my mother-in-law and also a present that must be delivered by post.  

After a brief queueing session at the Post Office, I return to finish writing the remaining, delivered by hand / in person cards.

The cleaner is now finished and we exchange Christmas pleasantries, I also ask if she'll be working on New Year's Eve (by which time we'll all be sequestered in our homes, alone, together, again).  She says it depends, and - as it turns out, she's probably right, as I've just discovered we're now in tier 3 lockdown. Not sure I'll be able to tell the difference in terms of what I've been doing, though it is a big blow to local restaurants etc. I do hope they are able to survive this, because if they don't, 2021 will be even grimmer than it's already shaping up to be.

I've written a bunch of cards and all I'm left with now are the cards I'll give to the carers, many of whom are working over Christmas.  We are so lucky with the carers we have, how hard they work, and their dedication, despite not being rewarded in line with the value of what they do (like so many others this year), so I'll try and keep them well-fed and watered over the days of Christmas. 

Evening is fast approaching and along with it the final Idler drinks for 2020 (there are already 5 or 6 booked for January and February), tonight's being Professor Ronald Hutton talking about the origins of the traditions of Christmas. Not my most anticipated chat of the year, but who knows?

It happens again. My preconceptions prove to be wrong: Ronald Hutton is an engaging and lively speaker (he is a lecturer at Bristol University, so I guess there was a chance) and it turns out that the whole story of our Christmas celebrations and traditions are far more complex than I thought.  Some of what was discussed I already knew, but much of it wasn't and some of the things I believed turned out to be complete cobblers.  The discussion took in druids, Cromwell (a lot things I had wrong about at period of history)/the puritans, Prince Albert/Queen Victoria, Krampus, solstices, some local English, Welsh and Scottish customs and a whole lot more.  Watch the video on YouTube, once it is shared, it was absolutely excellent. Best of all, every question he was asked, he knew the answer, he truly is an expert on the subject (and a lot more besides - look him up!)

Time to make dinner.  Tonight's recipe is called 'quick fish stew'.  Son #2 and I set to work prepping veg and fish - it's looking like it will be rather tasty, and - relatively - quick.  We sit down together and eat, whilst deciding what we should start to watch next.  For various complicated logistical reasons we don't want to start something with more than 5 hour-long episodes, which pretty much knocks every option off the table.  In the end we decide to continue with 'The Mandalorian' as it's the path of least resistance.

After that the usual descent into madness.

As the end of the year gradually comes into distant focus, I'm hearing lots of new music, as well as being reminded of things I loved from earlier in the year.   This is from the latter camp, released digitally in June, this is 'Sorry Ain't Enough' from SAULT's first of two album releases this year, 'Untitled (Black Is)'


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