Lockdown Diary - Sunday 21st March 2021

The same goes for Sunday as for Saturdays (see Saturday).

One of the morning's chores was to do the census. It's a right pain in the arse when there's five of you in a house, especially if any of you have ever worked. Got to a certain point when I found there were questions I couldn't answer for each of my sons, so I saved it to complete later.

Spent the rest of the morning trying keep myself busy and keep my mind distracted. It's a valiant effort but it takes a lot to occupy my brain and there seems to be a deeply embedded circuit that is always capable of surfacing thoughts I don't want unless I'm doing something all-consuming. There aren't many things my brain finds all-consuming, at least not currently, which re-engages that circuit.

After making lunch with son #2, I sat and watched a documentary called 'Blitzed: The 80s Blitz Kids' Story' on Sky Arts.  I actually started it on Saturday afternoon and plan to try and finish it in bits today.  It was a good documentary and while I never was a 'new romantic' at the time and some of the music left me cold at the time (and still does), it was interesting to see the roots of the scene were Bowie, Kraftwerk, punk and other German electronica.  The cultural significance of the scene and the impact it had on many progressive attitudes today can't be underestimated.  There were certainly some big personalities!  It was also good to juxtapose Gary Kemp and Spandau Ballet then, with the Gary Kemp who plays in Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets, reworking early Pink Floyd numbers. Great documentary - watch it while you can!

Read the papers - not a huge amount of to read, some new books and the odd new album that piqued my interest.

More chores followed by the final part of 'Blitzed'.

Unusually I felt like I needed to try and distract myself by listening two albums, starting with Beautify Junkyards latest album 'Cosmorama' and finishing with A.A.Williams' 'Songs from Isolation', which is appropriately dark and gothic.

Son #2 and I got the dinner under way - baked salmon in rosemary and garlic - after which I managed to get each son to help me finish their section of the census and send it off, electron by electron.

We watched another episode of 'Narcos: Mexico' over / after dinner before I planned my escape from the nagging pain of dreary daily existence.

A.A.Williams / 'Lovesong' / 'Songs From Isolation'


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