Lockdown Diary - Sunday 10th January 2021

Generally feeling a bit rubbish. Apart from the tedious annoyance of my lower back pain, which thankfully seems to be easing, I've been increasingly suffering with another pain which I had hoped, in true male fashion, would just go away / sort itself out, but it hasn't.  I think it's been going on for three or four weeks now, so I guess it's not going away of its own accord. For some strange reason a line from Joyce's 'Ulysses' comes to mind: “Mr Leopold Bloom ate with relish the inner organs of beasts and fowls." Anyway, one of my sons is nagging me to contact the GP and, annoyingly I think I'm going to have to do so tomorrow.  It's all just pissing me off as I just want to be well and able to do everything I am able (lockdown permitting) to do, but there always seems to be something getting in my way.

I ought to make the most of the day but I am severely lacking in motivation. There doesn't seem to be much point in doing anything if I'm just going to have one thing after another go wrong with me. Nevertheless I need to get things done, so  onwards and upwards.

It's time for a PC spring clean. Son #2 is revamping his PC, primarily used for gaming, and since he's replacing the motherboard, CPU, adding a second SSD etc etc, he's also cleaning the case.  On removing the cables and dismantling the case I am horrified to see the inside of mine. I do the best I can to remove all the dust I can, whilst trying to ensure I don't fry any of the components via a static discharge.  Son #3, whose PC has had an annoying (to him, thus to me) series of unexplained bugs that no amount of effort has fixed, is going to receive the old motherboard and CPU from son #2's PC, which have worked fine for him.  Opening son #3's PC case has shown an even greater level of dust build up, so I have resolved to get a powerful dust blower that we can all share.  One thing that's really hard to remove normally is the very fine dust that builds up on the fans, by all accounts the new dust blower should help with that.

My focus for reading is waning at the moment, though that may be a consequence of me generally being pissed off with myself. One thing I am determined to do today is walk. Didn't yesterday, so I am today. I want to get back into the habit of walking every day, just need the motivation.

The boys are all occupied with PC upgrades of one sort or another and so none of them will join me for a walk, however I am determined and am about to get ready to go shortly. It's now or never for two reasons: it'll be getting dark soon; unusually there's an FA cup football match I want to watch for a couple of reasons. More on that after the walk.

Back from my walk - almost 30 minutes at a continuous good pace, which I'm pleased about.  No unexpected dog turds in the walking area this time, either.  When I'm standing for long periods the other pain I referred to at the start of this gets worse, even - as I've discovered today - when walking. 

The coverage of the FA cup tie between Marine AFC and Tottenham begins at 4:30 and I have a double interest in this match. I'm not a huge sports fan though nominally I have supported Spurs since I was at primary school.  In addition we have family connections with Crosby, which is where Marine AFC play, and I know the area quite well, so it's interesting to see it and the surrounding area on TV.  Obviously I hope Spurs win - they certainly ought to, given Marine are a non-league side of amateur players - though the FA cup is full of surprises, so who knows? What I appreciate most, though, even as someone not that interested in football (or sport of any form for that matter, other than playing some) is that this game highlights the point of competitions like the FA cup: even a small club like Marine can end up playing a Premier League side and the money that goes to clubs like these is what's at the heart of keeping the game alive. Despite there being no actual crowd due to covid, virtual tickets have been sold, many to Spurs fans, which will generate revenue for the club.  One side of the Marine pitch backs on to houses, so a lot of people are in their back gardens watching the game.  Great stuff!

The match is now over and I guess the result wasn't really in any serious doubt, certainly not after the first twenty or so minutes, but it was enjoyable to watch, mostly.

Next stop, dinner.  I try to ensure we have fresh fish at least once a week, so tonight's dinner is tuna steaks - when I saw them on the fish counter they looked really good, so that was what I went for.

We ate the tuna whilst we watched the increasingly baffling events of the final episode of the first series of 'Raised By Wolves'.  Everyone enjoyed the tuna but my verdict was that it tasted really good and was still tender and not dry, but next time I'd probably cook for a little less each side, maybe 90 seconds which would be closer to perfect.

To bed then, though I'm not quite in such a hurry as normal for a Sunday night as I don't think I'll be doing yoga tomorrow, though I don't think I'm far of being able to do it again.  Let's see how things are tomorrow.

Today being the fifth anniversary of David Bowie's death, my choice of music is already decided.  This is 'Lazarus' from his final album 'Blackstar', released on his birthday, two days before he died.  This is the only fitting song for the day.

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