Nine Feet Underground

A Thursday dominated by work, with little or nothing else to colour the day until the early evening. An afternoon of back to back video calls until I stop work for 6 p.m. to join...another video call, but this time not for work, but instead for the Idler drinks.  Tonight's guest is Tristram Hunt who is a historian and director of the Victoria and Albert Museum. He will be talking about Josiah Wedgwood tonight, which is not a subject that I find that appealing though perhaps when the talk gets going I will discover I am wrong, as almost always.   Yet again, the speaker, subject matter and conversation turn out to be more interesting than I expected and, though the pottery remains of zero interest to me, as before the talk, Josiah Wedgwood and the milieu that he operated in turn out to be fascinating.  There's a very passionate plea for more emphasis on art & design in schools, which was good to hear, but also, as things stand, unlikely to come to pass. The after t...

Not much to say, really. Work dominates the day, though the usual things happen to punctuate periods of listening, watching, absorbing, note-taking, questioning, and writing. Peak excitement came when the hospital called about my forthcoming (unless it comes fifth after a photo-finish) operation. The question is do I want to follow the 'green path' or the 'green plus path'? There isn't a black one or a left-hand one, so after a little explanation I confirm I'll be following the 'green path' in the two weeks prior to my triple incision: it would literally be impossible to follow the 'green plus path', given how life is in this house. After that, you may be surprised, back for more work. As the working day comes to a close I realise I need to send a couple of urgent-ish emails regarding my benefits choice for the year 2021-2022 and actually start planning what I'm going to go for. Time is running out and I always seem to delay doing these non-c...