Lockdown Diary - Friday 8th January 2021

The working week is coming to a close: the day ahead is filled with calls and so it will be a busy day.

I'm reminded that today would have been David Bowie's birthday and the weekend ahead (Sunday to be precise) marks the fifth anniversary of his death. I'm sure I'll have something to play, if not say, about that. In the meantime I have work to do and calls to attend.

One of the things I really must do in 2021 is carve time out of the working day to exercise and meditate: it was so busy today I lost track of time and didn't do either, nor did I manage to go out and walk.  It doesn't help when meetings are arranged over the lunch period, nor does it help having two diaries - one that the client sees and one that my employers see; unless you keep them in sync neither sees when you are busy for the other party and so together fill the day up.  Need to sort this! It can wait until next week though as it's almost six and I've not had a break.

Another thing I need to think about is frozen food.  A friend has made me think about it because, as a rule we don't normally have much other veg, ice cream and ice in our freezer.  Before my wife became too ill to be involved in the food shopping, we rarely bought any frozen stuff, only fresh, and I have just carried on in the same way.  It's maybe time for re-think now, though, especially given the way things are, having the odd food item in the freezer might not be a bad idea if it saves having to go out and shop.

The evening carers arrive whilst I'm still working and have a disturbing tale to tell.  Allegedly one of their clients has been discharged from hospital today though according to the ambulance crew the client is covid positive and has been discharged because they don't have the bed space.  This is not good as the carers are potentially a lethal virus vector given they visit many people in a day, many of whom (maybe most?) are clinically extremely vulnerable, like my wife.  I am attempting to find out how true this is via independent means (though I have no reason to disbelieve the carers), but if it is true then it is extremely dangerous and worrying, especially given how much more easily spread the new strain of the virus seems to be.  Apart from being extra careful, and the carers too, there's not much I can do about it since we cannot do without the care.  My wife would go downhill within days were it not for the care: Catch-22.

Tonight's recipe is summer chicken and basil stew. It was son #2's choice, though I can't help feeling it's wrong, season-wise.  No matter, it's a fairly easy recipe, which starts off with me dusting chicken thighs with seasoned flour, then pre-frying them until golden brown before the stew aspect of the recipe begins.  Part way through frying, sons 3 and then 2 join me to help, which gets things properly under way.

The usual gathering around the TV to watch the penultimate episode of 'Raised By Wolves': apparently a second series has been commissioned so it would appear that there is no need for a very rapid tying up of many unresolved threads in the final episode.

After the usual tidying up process I head for bed.

Before watching 'Raised By Wolves', whilst waiting for the clans to gather, the TV was, as it often is, on BBC Four, which was showing a David Bowie documentary. Whilst three of us were sat there 'Rebel Rebel' came on and sons 1 and 3 said, 'Oh, I didn't realise that was by David Bowie'; they have presumably heard it on the soundtrack of some game or other (GTA?), but as always with no context. It is such a great song and, given it's Mr. Bowie's birthday today, it seems like a good choice.  The song was originally on the album 'Diamond Dogs', though of course it was a single too and has appeared on lots of compilations and on film soundtracks (check out Seu Jorge's version in the film 'Steve Zissou: The Life Aquatic', for a different take on it)

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