Lockdown Diary - Monday 1st February 2021

Despite the best intentions, I didn't manage to get out of bed until just before the first carer call of the day at around 7:15 a.m.  It is dark, I don't need to be up especially early (still no yoga) and I didn't sleep that well. I should probably cut myself a little slack occasionally.

Whilst chatting with my wife's carer, I took the morning's usual schedule of drugs (prescription, to be clear 😉) and got my breakfast prepared. Having completed my wife's meds and attached/started the PEG pump, the carer leaves and I go and get showered, dressed and ready to face the day anew.

I'm in the process of writing various things, most importantly a review of the book club book 'All The Pretty Horses' ahead of tonight's Zoom meeting. If nothing else it will help put my thoughts in focus so I have something to say tonight.  I'll publish it at some point after the meeting and decide on my star rating for the book.

It's now February (goodbye January, at last) and Valentine's Day looms large on the horizon, so I rack my brains and try and find a gift (on top of the obvious ones) to buy for my wife.  Thankfully I have found something that she will benefit from and hopefully appreciate, given most things like meals, chocolates, items of clothing, and so forth, are pointless.

The lunchtime carers arrive and some banter ensues: they become a part of your life so that it is easy to overshare, and perhaps today I have done so, there are so few people who are close enough to our situation that I can talk to openly.

After the carer visit it's time to make lunch with son #3: son #2 is busy with work and son #1 is still asleep.  It's getting quite late as the carers were late, which means my attempt to steal 20 minutes for meditation after lunch is almost immediately interrupted by another carer call.

The rest of the afternoon is spent finishing reading the papers from the weekend and going for a brisk walk for half an hour or so with son #2. The air outside  was quite fresh while walking but good to get out, and a good break from work for my son.

Somehow it's almost 7:30 and time to join the book club call, the time having been spent doing a variety of bits and pieces, but nothing substantial.

A very enjoyable book club session, with lots of interesting observations about the novel, a new member and the return of someone who's not been to any of the sessions since we had to go virtual.

After book club, time to clear up the dinner debris and then retire.

Not a band I'd listen to very often, but I heard it out of context, and initially thought 'I recognise this?', but couldn't quite place it for a few seconds. The thing that struck me was that it wasn't obvious what time period the record was from, which is often a good thing. Important to the development of all popular music as The Beatles undoubtedly are, I've never completely reconciled myself to them. In part I always think of them as belonging to a previous generation, and thus there's the whole 'not my music' thing going on, though I no longer let that get in the way of what I listen to. I also feel there are a lot of overrated songs in their catalogue, and some of them, 'When I'm 64' for example, are just plain irritating. The album 'Revolver' however is a different beast altogether and probably remains for me the peak of their career, though of course there are good songs littered across their albums and singles. This rather long introduction (reminds me of a 'Derek & Clive' skit) is all leading to 'Tomorrow Never Knows' from that album, and, of course, it never does.

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