Lockdown Diary - Tuesday 2nd February 2021

Chatting to the early morning carer, we both agreed we were having trouble getting out of bed this week and are finding these dark mornings a struggle. She's obviously getting up a lot earlier than I am (and from a different bed in a different house, for the avoidance of doubt), so it's even darker when she gets up, but it's still pretty dark at 6:30 a.m. when my alarm goes off, and that, my friends, is my excuse.

Of course I can't have a lie-in because Tuesday is back to work day and today I will mostly be installing software, which hopefully - third-time lucky - should work.  What I'd like to know is this: who writes an InstallShield wizard that appears to have worked apparently successfully (with no errors or warnings or even so much as the hint of an informational message) but when you go to start the app, only then does it come up with a load of errors saying certain components weren't installed successfully? I think I know the answer, however the answer cannot be written here for fear of falling foul of obscenity laws.

Here we go again, another day another install attempt.  Apart from the tedium of repeatedly doing the same thing each time, though the uninstall step is a bit complicated (there's an error in the installer (my, my, I am surprised!) that means it incorrectly sets the uninstall registry key which in turn prevents uninstall from working without a fiddly Regedit change)), I find I'm sitting down more than I ought to be.  Need to type commands or respond to prompts then get up and watch while Rome burns down around me.

The day is consumed by work, predominantly the install, which at close of play still hasn't worked.

Unexpectedly, mid-afternoon, I find myself booking gig tickets for 2022, which seems both strange and crazy. Nevertheless, I book a pair of tickets to see Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets in Oxford in April 2022 in the hope that this madness will be over by then.

After the frustration if InstallShield, I then discover that what we'd planned to cook for dinner tonight expired at the weekend. Damn! I obviously didn't check the dates carefully enough when shopping (have I told you how much I dislike food shopping?) nor did I check the dates when planning the sequence we had the dinners in. Ho hum, pig's bum! (Cows actually)

So takeaway it is then for tonight. Gathering the troops we discuss what to have and agree a plan.  Order is placed. Time to sit back and wait.

Son #3 is engaged in some sort of online computer game tournament which will take up most of the evening and will be a regular thing every Tuesday from now on. 

After the takeaway is delivered son #3 eats his in his room and the rest of us eat whilst watching an episode of HIGNFY. After that sons 1 and 2 return to their PCs and I decide what to do after clearing the detritus away. The day gradually comes to an end ready to go through it all again.

Thin Lizzy were one of the bands I was lucky enough to see live whilst at the University of Leeds, way back when, and this track from 'Live and Dangerous' (probably one of the best live albums, overdubs and all) is perhaps the best rendition of the song (that I'm aware of). This is the ballad, 'Still In Love With You'  (The video is from a compilation album wit a pretty naff cover, but I'm pretty sure this is the version from L&D)

[[]]