Nine Feet Underground

After my rant about gardening yesterday, there was only one logical thing to do today. Yep, that's right, gardening. I've always taken great delight in the reconciliation of opposites or, at the very least, holding two contradictory positions at the same time.  The meandering path between opposing poles is the most interesting one. Gardening, then. After the dramatic changes resulting from the hedge-man's efforts yesterday, I decided to go further and chop down two other overgrown features that blocked the view from the kitchen window.  Filled the garden waste bin and cut my finger on some bamboo (I bloody hate bamboo, virulent bastard stuff), which went through some heavy duty builders gloves, as if they were cotton.   It is a truism that you haven't really been gardening unless you cut yourself, at least once. As I cut through the stuff it did cross my mind that a flame thrower might be more effective, though it could have negative consequences for the fences and...

Forget the usual Saturday bullshit, take that as read. It's all done for another week, PTL! I'd forgotten about it, but the guy who normally does our hedges and so forth turned up this morning, as agreed, and ready to do the usual.  He always does a really good job and trims back everything that's overgrown and takes away all the trimmings of which there's usually a lot, but somehow I begrudge paying for it, old skinflint that I am.  As I sat back and reflected on how much he was doing, I thought, 'Nah, that is money well spent' - it would take me a month of Sundays to do the same, I couldn't get rid of that much foliage via the garden waste bin service and frankly I dislike gardening (what's wrong with back to nature) so much that cutting the lawn or digging holes for someone to plant stuff in is about as good as it gets. Leave it to someone who gets pleasure from it - sadly that used to be my wife, but it's almost 10 years since she's been ab...

Friday. Bank Holiday. Also the 75th anniversary of VE day.  Started the day with a run at around 7:30am before it got too hot! Back from run and warm down, time to shower and get up to face the day. Arranged a call with friend who moved to Berlin for 10am, then set about breakfast and getting some washing on. Yeah, I know, how do I keep up this fever-pitch level of excitement? Unbridled hedonistic excess are my middle names, that's how. Chatted with mate in Berlin, where they are also commemorating VE day, though styled as ' ...the end of the Second World War and the liberation from National Socialism 75 years ago. ' Good to get a perspective from elsewhere in Europe. We've decided to get a takeaway from our local Italian restaurant tonight to make the most of the day, and that's now ordered with a collection slot at 7:40pm. Only one catch - I'll have be good about opening a bottle of wine until after we get back - reckon I can just about manage it, though ...

Today is a better Thursday than average lockdown Thursday, as tomorrow is a Bank Holiday, making this the last working day of the week.  Hooray! Better still this means I have a 4-day weekend, which I'm really looking forward to - lockdown or no lockdown. Work has dominated the day, as it usually does, so I don't have much to say about the day so far. Shortly, at 6pm, I'll be joining the latest drinks with The Idler - tonight Will Hodgkinson, music journalist is the main guest. Should be good. Another enjoyable spent in the company of poets, philosopher's and writers - next week it's the turn of Sally Philips and Jane Bussmann, can't wait. I'm settling in to these Zoom calls with 100s of strangers and participated in the chat, hard not to when music is the topic. One woman liked my suggestion of BC Camplight's new album as one of the albums to listen to in lockdown times.  There's no accounting for taste! Big success of the day - I'm well chuffe...

Wednesday is always a good day for me in lockdown times, thanks to yoga at 7am. I do have to make sure I stick to getting up when the alarm goes off and not snoozing it, and while it's still a struggle I feel so good afterwards that it's worth it. Today doing yoga so early also meant that I spotted the bin lorry approaching and realised I hadn't put the garden waste bin out, so quickly dashed out and wheeled it to road in the nick of time. Another sunny day: shame I'm sat in front of a PC screen all day. Damn. Finishing work now and reading IV.4 of the 'Wake.  Read IV.4 and I now have the final section, probably the most beautiful, moving and lyrical section of the book, left to read: Anna Livia's dying words as she dissolves into the sea, but not before she talks fondly of her life, husband and children, and then is reborn again and the cycle of life goes around. It begins, ' Soft morning, city! Lsp! I am Leafy speafing. Lfp! Folty and folty all the ni...

Working day, so that has dominated proceedings and there's not much to say about that. The sun is out again today, though I've only been out to hang some washing out to dry, and the rest of the time I've been seeing it out the window as I work at the PC screen. Spoke to a work colleague for a bit to catch up on what's been happening with them, but otherwise just getting on with what needs doing. Boys made an excellent lunch of fried egg, bacon and toast which I ate while working.  A hot lunch makes a pleasant change, so I'm feeling well looked after 😍 I managed to knock up a quick review of yesterday's book club novel, 'Ghost Wall', but only after I re-read the first chapter. It is really powerful story and well worth reading.  Do yourself a favour and read it!  Now I need to read 'Three Women' and 'Futuristic Violence and Funny Suits', but before that I must start IV.3 of the 'Wake. { Some time later on } I finished IV.3 of...

Another Monday.  Weather looks OK, so I'm going to strip my bed and get the bedding washed and change to something new for tonight. The excitement is beginning to mount. A slightly different Monday, only adding to the rising level of excitement: I had a trip to my GP to deliver a sample, gift-wrapped, sort of. Very brief trip out over, I returned home to start setting up the living room for yoga and get the laptop logged in ready to Zooooooooooooooooooom! Yoga is now over until Wednesday, unless I go crazy and do a second session this evening, however, thinking about it, I cannot. Tonight is book club night - yay! - and we'll be discussing 'Ghost Wall' by Sarah Moss. I can't say anything more about the book until we've discussed it and I've written my review on goodreads.  Looking forward to seeing everyone and discussing the book over a glass of wine or three 😁 The most important thing about today, so far, is that it is the anniversary of the publ...

Lie in, briefly punctured by the arrival of first of the day carer entering the house at around 7am. Gradually woke myself listening to Radcliffe & Maconie, then got out of bed, opened the curtains and let the light in. No turning back now. A brief period of internal argument ensued: shall I run or shall I leave it? Not so sunny this morning. Looks like rain.  Oh, sod it, just do it. Having lost or won the argument, depending on your perspective, I threw on running gear and started doing warm up exercises. (Sometimes I think that's the most de-motivating part: Having to warm up your muscles first, when you just want to get on with it and get running, elongates the process so much that it's off-putting.  I do accept warming muscles up is essential, I just get bored doing it.) To cut a long story short, I did run - a little bit further and a little bit faster, which was good, and - good timing, or what? - just as I was warming down there were a few spots of rain.  ...

Up at the crack of dawn...steady! Not chuffed to be up so early, but quite chuffed to find I've lost weight again, not much admittedly, but a further step in the right direction, despite an increase in the chocolate and alcohol content of my diet.  Obviously I need to drink more and eat more chocolate! Shopping (x2). Took ages, queued for something like 35 minutes, worst Saturday so far. Why was it busier? No idea.  Got there same time as usual, if not earlier. The woman behind me in the queue, who had a strong Northern Irish accent (which matters why? It doesn't, just added colour), said it was the first time she'd come shopping on a  Saturday, and it was going to be her last! Return home. Carers still here, even though I was about 30 minutes later than normal.  They are both well, though they tell me that Bear's catheter has been bypassing and so I'll need to flush it later/during the lunchtime call. Unpack shopping and go through the whole rigmarole of wha...

Had planned to start the day with another run but I've (temporarily, I hope) buggered a muscle or some equivalent meaty construct in my left calf and it doesn't want to play ball, let alone run. Been doing stretching exercises and whacking it with a cricket bat during the day to see if that will fix it. So far, not so good. (I should point out, lest anyone should doubt my approach, that one of those things isn't true. It was a mallet really. No, I lie, I've not whacked it with anything. Yet. Oh, and by the way, yes, I do believe 'buggered' is the correct medical term for it. Look it up.) Work again today, so my activities have been limited, in fact limited largely to work, though I've had good chats with a mate in Berlin and another in Bracknell. Tomorrow it'll be the 'Cs'. Both of them talked to me about work, even if only briefly, and after the call one of them even sent me a technical question he was seeking my opinion on - is there no esca...