Lockdown Diary - Saturday 9th January 2021

Saturday shopping takes on the air of a military exercise: getting in, getting what we need and getting home, aided and abetted by son #1. Thankfully the shops are quieter than last week and even when we've finished, carrying our coffee, bacon rolls, bread and other goodies from the wonderful Bread Girls, the car park is noticeably emptier than normal: either people are staying home and finally taking notice of the warnings or just shopping later? Either way, I'm glad it's over for at least another week.

Once home son #1 and I bring in the shopping and, for the first time in a few months, disinfect stuff before putting it away. Probably paranoia/overkill, but the level of cases locally is so high I'm not happy to take the risk. After washing hands for the forth or fifth time since we got home, we sit down and eat our breakfast, my last bit of calm before chores take over.

Washing under way and lunchtime carer visit over, it's time to brave the elements and chop up our two ex-Christmas trees. The taller tree needs sawing in two as it won't fit in the garden waste wheelie bin. The postman arrives during my chopping and we have a brief conversation - he seems to be our regular postie these days and is a friendly young bloke.  There are hardly any safe and legal ways to speak to people in the real world.

Tree slashed to fit the garden waste wheelie bin and chopper safely put away it's back to the excitement of general household chores. T. D. Um.

Son #3 and I make lunch together as we are the only two who are up (son #1 having returned to bed and sleep after eating breakfast: getting up that early is still a struggle) 

Amongst all this activity I'm still doing the NHS back exercises to ease my lower back pain: things are improving but not as fast as I'd like (that old impatience rears its head again) and it's looking like I'll not be back at yoga on Monday, which is a bit of a downer.  After the second set of exercises of the day I steal some time (from whom? from what?) to read the Saturday papers.

I've got something new to factor into my life plan: son #1 has decided he wants to go back to university, this time to study something like politics and economics, like his younger brother.  I don't know exactly what his thinking around this has been but it has been apparent to me for several years that his real passion has been politics and history and yet he chose to do physics.  It reminds me of my time in the sixth form and at university: much as I am greatly interested in science (still am) and how passionately interested in meteorology and hydrology I am, I discovered that I have a real passion for English literature, which had lain hidden and untapped.  After I'd left university I found I wanted to study English literature, something I'd still like to find time to do.  If son #1 does go to university in September (he's applying now), then I'm fully supportive of this, though I have to see how this will affect my own life plans or rather find a way to support his plans whilst not losing sight of mine. Plans, eh?

Time passes.  Tick, Tock. Tick, Tock.

It's film night again and son #1's choice: he's chosen a film I've watched before, but no matter, it's an OK film (though not entirely faithful to the novel), and, given how late we are eating, relatively short.  The film is 'The Dead Zone' based on the Stephen King novel of the same name. 

It's an OK film, though not worth going out of your way to watch - the book is better, though better still is King's novel 'The Stand', which is by far and away the best of his novels I've ever read.  One of these days I should re-read that, or rather the longer and revised version that was published in 1990.  At over 1200 pages that's going to require a holiday or break to do it justice. 

I reckon that's it for today.

There are already a few music highlights planned for 2021, but one I am eagerly awaiting is the new album by Cathal Coughlan. I've followed his career (and his oft-times co-conspirator Sean O'Hagan too) since I first heard Microdisney on John Peel's show back in 1982 or 1983.  This will be his sixth solo album, his first for ten years and will be titled 'Song of Co-Aklan', which is the title of the single which has been released ahead of the album.  The single is one of the strongest songs he's made in a while and seems to be driven by an anger that the times deserve.  Let's hope the album burns with a similar passion.


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