Lockdown Diary - Friday 16th April 2021

Purpose. Porpoise. Lost.  

An early morning check of my emails confirms that the community matron will be paying my wife a visit today, so that's a bit of good news.

More fun on the PC as I confirm Saturday's shopping order with the help of all three sons.  I'm still not able to go shopping, though in all honesty, it's not something I miss, apart from the fresh bread, cakes and pastries from the market.

After the main carer call the community matron plus community matron in training paid my wife a visit.  Oxygen sats were normal but her temperature was oddly low and the CM said previously my wife's temperature has dropped just before an infection takes hold. Listening to her chest via stethoscope found a rattling in her right lung and this confirmed she is just starting another infection. The CM was very impressed with the carers for spotting the signs so early and said we were lucky to have such good carers, which I absolutely agree with, as it's something I know very well, day-to-day. It's also the benefit of having the same carers on a regular basis, they get to know what 'normal' is and are able to spot the signs when things are changing. I am reminded that the palliative care doctor said that things will end with a series of infections, one of which will be one too many.


The CM always enquires after my health, dunno if this is part of holistic care, given I'm a carer, but for whatever reason, she does. I explained I'd just had the hernia (x2) operation via three key holes, and she said I should be taking it easier and suggested I was still trying to do too much too soon.  Suitably chastised I determined to take it easy and not be lulled into a false sense of security, just because the pain is easing.

Back to 'Medical Grade Music', 'Jolly Lad' and the latest issue of The Idler. 

Over lunch I started watching an excellent documentary on The Style Council called 'Long Hot Summers: The Story Of The Style Council'. It was so good I had to watch it to the end.

More reading - still not in the right frame of mind to stop and listen to music properly - my every waking moment pervaded by a huge sense of loss and unfulfilled possibility; Belle-Lettres Journal.

I'm being chased by Imperial College and the DHSC to take part in a covid survey - I think it's called 'REACT COVID-19' - and as I also take part in the ZOE covid survey, I figure that if me taking part will help in some way, then I should.  As far as I can see apart from filling in some info online, I'll also have to do another covid swab test which they will send me. Maybe there'll be more to do in the future, but i figure it's got to be worth it.  It's done now, the blue touch paper is lit, and I just have to sit back and wait.

Early evening I'm prompted to watch a YouTube documentary from the James Joyce Centre in Dublin, titled 'Colourful Creations in Joyce and Bosch with Dr. Christine O'Neill', which was an intriguing insight into the visions of hell in James Joyce's writing and the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch.  Well worth 75 minutes of anyone's time.

Son #3 and I knocked up dinner together, which made a nice change, and we made a good team as well.  I've noticed since he's been with his gf he and I get along much better, which is good. Raging hormones. We eat whilst watching the penultimate episode of 'Narcos: Mexico'. It's not been bad, though perhaps not as good as the original 'Narcos' series about Pablo Escobar and the Colombian drugs cartels.

Sleep at last.

The Style Council / 'The Paris Match (Early Version)' / 'Introducing the Style Council' (not a UK release) or 'Long Hot Summers - The Story of the Style Council' (Compilation)  

(Though this song appears on their debut album 'Café Bleu', it's a different version with Tracey Thorn on vocals and a completely different musical arrangement, which is much slower.  I do like that version, however, at least at the moment, I prefer this version which didn't appear on any UK albums, other than compilations.)


[[‘This is the Way the World Ends: Not with a Bang but a Whimper’]]

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