Lockdown Diary - Wednesday 9th December 2020

Days go by in the blink of an eye, while life seems to remain in limbo, neither one thing nor another.

One thing is certain though, today will be filled with work, as yesterday. As on most days there are things I have to arrange and deliveries to put away.  Supplies for my wife in the form of medication, feed supplies (which come with a whole host of other paraphernalia) and continence supplies. Box after box of stuff. It turns out that the new stomach feeding tube / PEG, requires a whole host of extra supplies and an additional maintenance regime. Apart from the fact that the tube itself needs changing every 6 to 9 months, something that can be done in the home, the balloon that holds the tube in place has to be emptied and refilled every 4 weeks.  Someone will need to be trained how to do this: I'm hoping either the carers or the DNs will be the ones to empty and refill it, though I guess I ought to learn, just in case. No matter how much I try and avoid getting involved on the medical side, somehow I seem to keep learning more.  I can't work out if this is a necessity or if it is just the part of me that always wants to know how everything works?  I guess also since my wife can neither learn it nor communicate about it, there is an element of necessity. Whatever, I guess.

Enough of that bollocks. Work.

A brief break to post a book as part of the book club's secret Santa. It can't be done face to face, so we're having a Zoom unwrapping (oooh err) on Monday night.  The book club will not be silenced by covid!

Work.

Outside of work I do feel like I am wading through treacle.  As the Talking Therapies questionnaire would put it, 'Little or no interest' in doing things.  Which brings me round to the evening.

There is stuff to do to semi-occupy my mind. 'Thinking not required' tasks like putting the boxes away that contained the Christmas decorations - these need to be away for the cleaner tomorrow. I must also gather all the bins together, for verily it came down from upon high that Wednesday shall for evermore be known as 'the night before bin day'. (Not a creature was stirring, not even a...) We have five - yes, five - boxes full of recycling waste, plus a huge pile of cardboard that doesn't fit (some of that from today's delivery of feed supplies) in the recycling boxes. This is the fallout from clearing the spare bedroom / garage.

I can't seem to summon the enthusiasm to listen to music or read, so in the end, having exhausted the mindless tasks, I end up lying down and staring into space (actually the ceiling gets in the way, so I can't actually see space, but you get my drift)

Dinner begins, started by son #3, and so I begin to get some more things done.  'Haunting of Hill House' then out with the bins. The end. Le fin.

The last 'Freak Zone' chose Pekka Pohjola's album 'Harakka Bialoipokku' as its featured album of the week.  Pekka rose to fame (?) as bass guitar player of the excellent Finnish band, Wigwam. This album was released in the UK by one Richard Branson of Virgin Records (at the time) fame under the name 'B The Magpie', it being a concept album about a Magpie. Doesn't sound that interesting, however, the music is something else. The track I've chosen is one many may recognise, despite never having listened to the album.  This track is called 'Sekoilu seestyy' (The Madness Subsides) and features twice in my collection, once on this album and, perhaps in the form you may recognise it, as sampled by DJ Shadow on the sublime 'Midnight In A Perfect World' (from the seminal album 'Endtroducing...') - a song that encapsulates exactly why sampling is a justified creative art in its own right.  Check both albums out, and why not check Wigwam out, too.

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