Lockdown Diary - Sunday 31st January 2021

Despite it not being possible to do very much, weekends still seem to pass by very quickly.  Sunday is under way, yet it feels like Friday was yesterday (which of course it wasn't!)

A more leisurely start to the day: eating an almond croissant and drinking coffee whilst I complete my online shopping order for the week.  Every week now when I start the process - which uses a previous week's order as a starting point - there are a list of items no longer available. It seems each week that the list of unavailable items is longer and I suspect this is another Brexit 'benefit', given they are often fresh fruit /  vegetable items.

Relaxation over, it's time to start on the first chore of the day: cleaning out the store cupboard of canned / ambient food items.  This activity has been prompted by the fact that we found weevils (miniscule little bleeders) in some old sugar and so, as a precaution I've decided to do a complete clean out then clean the rotating shelves with antibacterial cleaning spray.  It's also an opportunity to check for expired items - you know how it goes, you use part of something for a recipe then seal the rest up and put it away, then - as a general rule - forget you even have it and buy more the next time you need it. First discovery is that every jar of jam is well and truly out of date, I guess it's not surprising since it was my wife that liked jam (I mostly hate it and the boys are indifferent) and she's not eaten anything that solid for months and months, getting on for a year.

There's quite a lot of different sorts of rice and an early find is some rice that went out of date in 2014, which I reckon to be about the age of the kitchen.  There's a lot of food that ran out in 2018 or 2019 and reluctantly I dispose of it - I hate throwing food away, especially as I know there are people who could do with it (not now it's out of date, obviously) and I resolve to not let this happen again. If we can't eat it then it needs to go to a charity that can use it before it runs out.

I've cleaned the shelves thoroughly now and begun the process of putting the food back, double-checking each item's use by date, just to be sure.  It's then I make a discovery: a bag of pudding rice whose expiry date was February 2004 - seventeen years ago, before this kitchen was installed! Somehow we must have put it back even though it had expired ten years prior to the kitchen replacement!

Everything is now back and the food waste bin is bursting at the seams and, as I feel I'm on a roll, I decide it's time to clean the fridge in the garage.  It's only a small fridge, mainly used for milk and vegetables, but no matter how hard you try, milk always seems to leak out then go rancid / mouldy.  This seems to have happened again, so I empty the fridge, bring all the shelves and what-nots inside to be washed and disinfected, whilst I clean the inside of the fridge out with antibacterial kitchen cleaner.

Sons 2 and 3 have started making lunch and as I return the cleaned shelves and stuff back to the fridge, they finish off making lunch.

The three of us sit and have lunch together, with another episode of 'Disenchantment', which is more something that son #3 watches than the rest of us.  I note that one of the characters is voiced by the distinctive Matt Berry, which makes it a little more interesting for me.

After lunch there are a few more chores I must attend to but my main goal is finding time to finish reading 'All The Pretty Horses'.  

I've finished the book a day early, yay! Ideally I finish the book club book much earlier in the month so I can find time to read other books, but it hasn't worked out that way with this book, for various reasons, though to be honest I'm just glad to have finished it.  I have an ever-lengthening list of books I want to read this year, on top of the book club-driven choices.

Not enough time to do the papers justice, they'll have to wait until tomorrow / in the week.  I've spent a while reading and decide I need a change.  I have a call with my younger sister for a bit as she's been going through some really difficult times, not helped by being alone during much of lockdown.  I had planned to talk to her about something else that is in turn plaguing and exciting me, though no doubt it will end up being the source of more aggro than anything else.

After a chat with my sister, which is ended by the arrival of the evening carers, I decide wine is required and, after the carers bid me farewell, I sit down to watch the end of 'Teenage Superstars' and chill, for a bit.

Dinner underway, and after some initial work setting things up, I'm banished from the kitchen by son #2 who takes over.

Naturally dinner is accompanied by 'Mr. Robot', which is a more explanatory episode that addresses the revelations of the last episode, whilst managing to end on two cliff-hangers.  I am enjoying it, but do wonder how it can last a further two series after this one, there are only so many complete upheavals you can throw in and only so long you can stretch this plot out over, unless you're going to do a 'Lost'-style ending, which would be really annoying, or do a 'Dallas'-style, it was all a dream type of revelation, which would be equally annoying.  I think the ending of 'Lost' would take some beating in the anti-climax stakes, though.

Unfortunately the day is coming to an end, which means tomorrow is Monday, which means that I will shortly be back at work again. I really do need to make the most of Monday, because after that it will be full-on work until Friday.

As featured in the aforementioned 'Teenage Superstars' documentary, I've never completely forgotten the thrill of hearing The Jesus and Mary Chain for the first time. I guess I must've heard them first on John Peel, though I know I got 'Psychocandy' the day it was released. From that first album this is the seemingly appropriate, 'Never Understand'.

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