Lockdown Diary - Friday 19th February 2021

Going to be another quiet day here, as I'll be very busy with work - at least it will keep my mind off other things, Royal Mail notwithstanding. Start the day in the usual way, chatting to the early morning carer.  After she leaves I finish getting ready and get breakfast before starting work.

Apart from work there are a few deliveries that puncture the day:  new shelves for the oven; a bag of 100 assorted shims (oh, the excitement!); the latest issue of music magazine 'Eighth Day', which I'd forgotten about; my wife's new medical exemption certificate.

In the afternoon I briefly 'chat' (Messenger) with one of the authors of a new book on the Canterbury music scene and end up with a 30% discount code, which prompts me to order it. Afterwards I get that 'should you really be spending money on that?' feeling and a mist of guilt descends. There are higher priority items that I should really be spending my money on. Sackcloth and ashes.

I also go online and order some new joggers as I've been wearing the same old tracksuit bottoms I used to wear when the boys still played football - so the tracky bottoms are at least eleven or twelve years old (and yes, they do still fit - cheeky! I'm probably thinner now than I was then, though lockdown and not being able to exercise may soon put paid to that. Just as well I'm like a cat on a hot tin roof, most of the time) - and I was thinking they are looking a bit scruffy now - paint on them, stuff like that. Change is overdue! Ordering them makes me feel even more guilty about the book. It's not like I really 'need' any more books to read. I suspect if I read all day and very day for the rest of my life I'd only just finish the books I've not yet read.

Work fills the spaces around these brief islands of elsewhere.

As the afternoon progresses I gradually come to the realisation that I am in a lot more pain from my hernia.  It's kind of crept up on me and I'm reminded it actually started yesterday.  Maybe I've been sitting down too much and not moving enough these past couple of days. The pain is different: sharper and more insistent and doesn't seem to want to die down. 

I suddenly notice I'm due to be on my annual pay review call with my manager's manager.  I join the call and discover what I already expected, no pay rise this year, though as I said to him, given how last year went I wasn't really expecting one and was grateful that I am lucky enough to still have a job.  We chatted about the work I'm doing as we are both working on the same account, which made a pleasant change - we don't speak that often.

Back to real work again.

By the time I finish for the day the pain is starting to impact on my thought processes (what thought processes?) and the only less painful way of being that I can find is lying down, so that's what I end up doing until almost dinner time. For the first time since I discovered the problem I have to resort to painkillers as nothing I do seems to make it better. I am very lucky because son #2, with a little help from son #3, have the dinner in hand.  Not long before serving I come downstairs and sit in the living room, it's still painful sitting but less so after a period of lying down.  Hoping that a night's sleep will make it better as I have to do shopping tomorrow, regardless.  I really don't want to give in to painkillers again.

Nice dinner, 'Mr. Robot', followed by a brief bit of tidying in the kitchen - standing up is really not good - then I get ready for bed as quick as I can.  I'm unusually keen to get to bed tonight.

Tom Tom Club were a cool spin-off from Talking Heads. This is 'Genius of Love' from their self-titled debut album.

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