Cold Re-Boot

I got a cold just over a week ago. Didn't have the runny nose or coughs, did have shortness of breath when climbing stairs and that feeling that walking to the corner shop might be a mission I would not come back from. It lasts about three-four days. It wasn't the supercold. It wasn't the Virus. It would have been worse if I'd been commuting and waking up at 05:15 in the incubation period.

So I went into the Big Smoke after that, the only things on my to-do list being a haircut at George The Barber and a suntan at the Covent Garden Tanning Shop. I've been going to both since the early 2000's. I had lunch in Balans, and I've been eating there since the early-2000's as well. I damn near fell asleep on the train into Waterloo, and didn't quite wake up for the rest of the day. After lunch I went to Green Park, where I sat and dozed a little for a while, and then headed back to Waterloo. At some point when I was underground the rain tipped down.

I spent a short while in Fopp, looking for some box sets to watch. (I know, I should be streaming from Amazon Prime.) During this, I realised that I'm simply not attracted to today's cultural products, in part because the SJW infestation and remember-our-audience-is-mostly-female slant in a lot of the stuff made in the last, oh, eight years or so? Maybe ten? It could be that this stuff will look in twenty years' time as horribly dated as Starsky and Hutch does now: "ah yes the SJW years" the historians will say "most of it is unwatchable propaganda now". It could be that this is the way it's going to be for a long time.

So what do I do? I become that guy who re-watches his DVD collection and listens to his CDs over and over? Also, I go back over the period I like and see what I missed: there's probably a reason why Heathers is still on sale now. Some of that stuff is too specifically freighted with memories and emotions: I would have to be very careful about watching Four Weddings and a Funeral or Truly, Madly, Deeply again, whereas I can put on Dogtown and Z-Boys almost any time.

My reading is all over the place and always has been. Who knows, I may even try to see if it's true that In Search of Lost Time is a book to re-read rather than read the first time. (So many of its fans say that.)

I've made some resolutions:

No more doomscrolling, at least before about lunch.

I'm going to use slightly lighter weights in the gym. What I'm doing now is leaving me tired for the rest of the day and much of the following day.

Diet. Yes. I should definitely do something about that. I may do a whole over-thinking post on it.

Read more maths - I should line up more maths blogs and visit the arXiv more often. I'm not talking about You Tube gee-whiz maths, but research-level stuff. I will not rest until I can explain in simple language what is an Adele (no, not the singer) ring.

Re-read (re-gaze-at) my art books. Lord knows I have enough.

Use the bus to get to the station. Why I haven't done this before. I'm not sure, maybe because I've always walked to the station. But with the Bus Checker app I be sure that they haven't cancelled the one I need.

So life goes on.