Nine Feet Underground

Another cold start (a phrase that takes me back to CICS OLTP, which probably means nothing to 99.999% of humanity) and also another working day. Project work has been turned up to eleven with the obvious consequence for this blog:  not much I can write about. My brain cell is very warm as a result of a lot of design thinking, but now the working day is done and Q has returned from work.   There's not a huge amount of classical music that floats my boat, but Stravinsky's 'The Rite of Spring' ('Le Sacre du Printemps') is a piece I do like.  I caught the end of a TV recording on BBC 4 of the piece which reminded me how much I like it and thus I did listen to it today. We're having chicken enchiladas for dinner, where n is a natural number greater than one. Great dinner!  After which we finished season 2 of 'Bloodlands'. The ending was good, though I fear they have left the story open enough that there could be a third season. My biggest bugbear. A TV se...

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 kn...

Shopping Saturday, blah, blah, blah! Son #3 has been co-opted to accompany me as son #2's course continues on today - a deal has been done. During shopping I bumped into two of the women from my yoga class, one who is working in Waitrose until the John Lewis store re-opens and the other who was just out shopping.  It was good to speak to different people in real life, for a change. I am missing both doing yoga and being with the people (even if only over Zoom) whilst I do it. I hope it won't be too long before I am able to get back into it. The usual morning of chores ensues.  The eagle has landed. Son #3 and I make lunch reasonably early as he's going out walking with a friend and I want to have eaten something before my covid vaccination. Back from my Covid vaccination - had to wait around for 10-15 minutes to make sure I didn't have an adverse reaction, but it was fine.  One thing that did surprise me was how busy the town centre was. I don't know if it was just ...

Friday comes around again, as it inevitably does, and with the same mundane regularity it's going to be another Friday dominated by work. The day will include some variation this week, though.  I have to go to the GP surgery to pick up a medical exemption certificate for my wife, fill out what I can, and then return to her GP for completion. On my first trip to the surgery at around 9 a.m. the place is busy with people getting the Covid jab. I've not seen the place so full since February last year and my immediate response is to get the hell out of there as quick as possible - grab the form and go. Quick trip over (I didn't even stop to buy a parking ticket, though at risk of getting one!), I return to work then for a series of back to back calls this morning. I had a plan to return the form to the surgery after 1:45 p.m., but then someone decided to insert another meeting at 2 without warning.  I've decided it's now or never and reckon I can get to the surgery, han...