Lockdown Diary - Saturday 2nd January 2021

The third day of 2021 ushers in a return to all the mundane things that quotidian life has to offer.

Given the insane covid numbers that are now being recorded - apparently worse than the peak back in March/April - we're going to get shopping done and out of the way before it gets busy.  Son #2 and I get it done without any fuss and even a trip to the pharmacy to pick up my meds is achieved without encountering any other customer.  That's the best sort of shopping at the moment.

Saturday morning unfolds as any other Saturday for the past nine or ten months, with only conversations with the carers and postie bringing any real colour.

After a late-ish lunch I have got most of the tedious tasks complete and so I find time to read the papers. Son #2 is with me, revising for a Microsoft Azure exam on Monday.  Apart from the odd question about security principals and landing zones, I read uninterrupted. I suggested we go for a walk, which at least he agreed to (not sure if either of the others will join us?), but a phone call put paid to that.

A friend called for a catch up and to tell me the sad news that her father had died in early December, another victim of covid and one of the huge number of people that have lost their lives to it. She's had a bad year as her dad is the second person she was really close to that has died in 2020. We talked for quite a while - I lost track of time - but now it's too late for a walk as it's past sunset.  After the call I tell my wife the sad news - we have both met our friend's Dad on several occasions.

Walking now being deferred until tomorrow, I return to the papers before another burst of tedious chore-based activity.

After the final carer call of the day, I figure it's about time I listened to some music: I'm all set up and ready to go, listened to the first track on the recent JARV IS album when I thought pops into my head: 'I've not heard from my mother-in-law yet and it's now the second day of 2021...', so I decide to ring her.  The call goes through to her answerphone and I leave a message.  On with the second track from 'Beyond The Pale'.  Before it's barely got going, the phone rings, I stop the music and a long-ish conversation with my mother-in-law begins. Apparently she'd tried to ring several times while I was on the phone to our friend, but most important she is fine, she saw the new year in and her new washing machine has been installed.

By the time the call is finished, there's no point trying to listen to music again, though I'm not too bothered as at least having had the call today there won't be a call tomorrow.  Time to start dinner as a warm up to film night.  Dinner is accompanied by a glass of mulled wine each, courtesy of son #2's new employer.   It's also son #2's choice and he goes for 'Venom', a film in the Marvel canon. Not a film I'd have chosen though I know plenty of people who would have enjoyed the film just because of the lead actor.

'Venom' is OK, with some enjoyable action sequences, though the plot is a bit hackneyed. For a Saturday night's entertainment in the days of lockdown, it's not bad, but probably not a film that I'd choose to see again unless circumstances were particularly unusual.

Ash's debut album '1977' came out in 1996, the year before the twins were born, and featured their first single 'Goldfinger': still sounds fine to me

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