Nine Feet Underground

Back to work.  Weather is good. Usual combination.  Weird dreams last night. I guess the sources are inescapable. I wanted to say something about friends. I'm really lucky to have a great set of friends.  My life is enriched by having all these friends. Friends who are outside the UK. Friends I haven't seen for years. Friends I don't see often enough. Friends I've known since I was a child. Friends from school. Friends from university. Friends who were E's friends before mine. Friends I've made because of our children. Friends I've made through work. Friends I've made through shared interests. Friends I've made through political choices. Friends who are no longer with us, sadly. Some of these are overlapping categories, but all of them are important to me. All of you are part of me. 💓 I've been so busy today I've not had time to finish 'Nausicaa', so I'm going to have to read it tonight, if I can stay awake for long enough. Son #...

After a quiet day primarily dedicated to work, it's hard to know where to begin or to know what to write. I think I've done to death all the variations on 'it's a working day, so not much to say', so I don't want to trot that tired cliché out again. Unusually for a Friday, I haven't even left the house, so there's no vein of interactions to mine there.   I have had a few conversations with a friend and begun making some plans for November and December, which has been fun.  In the evening I listened to some music on random play before starting to make dinner for son #2 and I. Son #2 is planning an evening with his gf, so I'll probably eat my dinner  and watch something before attempting to catch up on the multi-day sleep backlog I'm owed (ain't gonna happen!!) In the event I watch the first episode of Frankie Boyle's tour of Scotland which we've had recorded for some while before retiring for talk and my latest way of stopping myself s...

This will be necessarily short, owing to work commitments and a general lack of time. Got my car MOTd in the morning, completing a one hour meeting whilst offsite waiting for the process to complete, the whole thing bookended by a couple of calls with a friend. When  I got home there was a message from the hospital: all being E will be coming home tomorrow, subject to the doctor's round tomorrow morning.  I let the care agency know and discovered that there needs to be a communication from social services that care can restart, before they can do so. Hopefully this should be coordinated via the hospital, but I'll probably need to track this, just in case. Otherwise the day was filled with work... ...until the evening when son #2 and I ate together and watched another episode of 'The Man In The High Castle'. After that, another call with a friend before the negotiation of sleep. Saint Etienne / 'Downey CA.' / 'Sound Of Water'   [[]]

A busy Monday ahead: apart from the usual yoga session (in person again), I also have two consecutive dental appointments (check-up and hygienist) and hopefully in between I'll find time for a trip to the flying club.  In addition, assuming all goes well, I should be able to pick up my new meds from the pharmacy late afternoon, after the dentist visit. Back from yoga: changed and ready for the next thing before the carers arrive for their lunchtime call. After their visit is over I head off for my first brisk walk of the day, and it does look like time is going to catch up with me today, and I don't think a trip to the flying club is on the cards. Somehow it's already time to head for the dentist and while I'm getting in the car, Boots texts to say my meds are ready for collection so I'll pick them up on the way home from the dentist.  I managed to read a few pages from 'Julius' whilst I was waiting at the dentist. Result! Home again: teeth sorted until Marc...

Not really feeling greatly invigorated by things at the moment, though I did manage to get up around 8 and start doing shit. Washing. Done. Cut the grass. Front and back. Waged war on the bamboo, though frankly it's a battle i'm never going to win. As soon as the wind dies down I am going to unleash the ultimate weapon. It might at least give me the upper hand. I've had lunch now and once I've meditated I plan to try and catch up on the papers. Life in the fast lane: swapped reading the papers with meditation!  Read a bit of the papers first - great interview with Margaret Atwood in yesterday's Guardian magazine. It's a start. Son #1 left mid-afternoon for his girlfriend's house where he'll be staying for the next week or so, to celebrate her birthday next week. I've been trying to get back into going out and walking each day.  Trying being the operative word, because until today I've pretty much done sod all.  According to the Times on Saturday ...

A normal week after a week's leave, so I attempted to get out of bed at a sensible time (sensible being debatable), namely 6:30am. Actually, that's not sensible, but it is when I got up.  Tomorrow I'll have to do the same as it's back to work, though starting work will be delayed because tomorrow morning will be dominated by a trip to hospital for my pre-op assessment, part 2. Today is my first day of complete self-isolation. No going out for any reason, not even exercise. If anyone comes to the house I have to stay away and wear a mask. Wearing a mask in my own home, damn it! This has to last from now until 6th July when the operation is due to take place.  At the moment that seems a long way off and it feels like it will be a struggle getting there. At least I can carry on with yoga. Did my usual 75 minutes on a Monday, which went pretty well, despite yesterday's exertions. Calls to make to my GP and two departments at the hospital not to mention lots of fun...