Nine Feet Underground

Started the day off with my (soon to be) regular thirty-plus minutes of brisk walking. When you're facing a day sat at the a PC, it's a good way to set yourself up, though I reckon another walk in the middle of the day would help. Work for most of the day, so not much to say here. Still scraping along the bottom and some things are really getting me down, even though they are things over which I have no control. My options are limited, if not non-existent. Various chores done and organised the next step in getting to the bottom of whether or not the shower is leaking or more correctly, where / how it's leaking.  Decorating the shower room is on hold until I get to the bottom of this. Nothing much else to say, not in the right state of mind. Work. More of the same. Started dinner on my own, but was joined by son #2. We all sat down together and watched the third episode of 'Top Boy: Summerhouse' After that, the usual, until the end. The Anchoress / 'Let It Hurt...

Breakneck start to Friday: Up early so I'm ready to go for a walk as soon as the first carer has finished and left. Straight out for 30 minutes brisk walking in the cool morning sun. On my return a quick change then off to the shopping precinct to collect meds for son #1 along with a couple of music mags and a visit to the coffee shop. I know my favourite barista works Fridays, so I pop in for the chat as much as for the coffee (anything to talk to a real person, in real life at the moment).  She is as bright and cheerful as always and we have a laugh. A fix for the day.   I hurry home to start work before the carers arrive, getting a wash load on as I make my breakfast (son #1 has finally changed his bedding - more sweat than sheet) then getting stuck in to work as I eat my porridge made with coconut milk.   Today is a day of Teams calls, starting at 9:30 with a couple of guys in my team in India.  Apart from work I have a long chat about how things are fo...

Had planned to get up when the first carer of the day arrived, primarily to speak to someone I can actually talk openly and honestly with, but in the end, though I heard her arrive, I was still close enough to oblivion that I preferred to stay there, sleep still being better than the alternative. Usual stuff done, even managing to read the papers before lunch. Still not in the right frame of mind to concentrate on reading enough to focus on the book club book, though.   Over lunch I watched the Sky Arts documentary 'Poly Styrene: I am a Cliché'.  By turns it was funny, sad, and very moving. Marianne's daughter did a great job of telling a warts and all story, with honesty and compassion. The boys did Mother's Day for their mum, mid-afternoon. Though she didn't really open her eyes, she did acknowledge that she could smell the flowers the boys bought.  The other gifts, especially the essential olis for the diffuser, will get used over the coming days. After that, tim...

Up even earlier than yesterday, owing to expected arrival of the cleaner. As it turns out she arrives, in fact almost materialises, behind the carer as she comes towards the front door. Neither of us know where she came from! The usual early morning banter with the carer follows, her services towards mental health in the community will not go unrewarded. After the carer leaves I finish making my breakfast, eating my porridge before I go and post a couple of cards in the post box up the road.  This is an early morning opportunity for a bit of exercise, so I plan to return the long way around in order to hit my first 10 minutes of brisk walking target. Back from the post box and time for coffee and work. Whilst I was eating breakfast and posting cards, the cleaner cleaned my office, so now I can get on with work - and it's only just gone 8 a.m. Crazy man! Work dominates the day though I am hoping for a message from on high, which no doubt won't come. Early evening I had a Zoom ca...

...of a Romance Novelist is not an album title guaranteed to appeal to me -conjuring up images of Barbara Cartland and Mills and Boon.  Don't panic though, it's an avowedly literary album but - certainly as far as many of the reviewers have commented - from a more feminist stance than you might associate with the above. The literary theme is maintained throughout the album and its cover: the booklet is laid out in the form of a book; every track has an epigraph quoting from a novelist, poet or artist; the lyrics come with a reading list (two pages including Georges Bataille, Roland Barthes, Barbara Cartland (FFS!), Carl Jung and Susan Sontag to name but a few); and the back cover has the song titles in the form of a stack of paperbacks with recognisable publishing house styles. A very coherent theme. The artist name also bothered me - The Anchoress - what does it mean? Does it mean anything?  Given all of the above, it clearly must and a little research shows th...