Here was a quick-and-easy post idea I couldn't resist. Search the title on You Tube and you will get a number of videos. Some are vaguely troubling. It turns out a lot of people can't live without pocket knives. Really?
Infrastructure stuff like Amazon, trains, electricity, gas, running water, not being mugged on the way to the station, my house, gas cookers, the Internet, dentists, doctors, friends and family, my glasses, and in my case, the entire Apple ecosystem... is all taken as read.
So here's the list...
Sony WF 1000XM-3 earphones. These are as good as everyone says
Music. From wake-up music to falling asleep music and every moment in between
De Longhi Dedica Espresso machine and Lavazza Red coffee. 'Nuff said
Exercise. Currently a Bosu ball and home weights
The Car. When you need a car, you need a car. Not a cab or a bus
Foyles and Fopp. There is no substitute for browsing for books, DVDs and CDs
To-Do List. Currently in a Moleskine notebook. I find To-Do lists have to be handwritten
A good Thai massage service, and osteopath. Because I have lousy posture and eventually that turns into aches.
Scarves and gloves in winter. Man do my hands get cold fast now.
The Freedom Pass. Age has its privileges and not having to worry about if you can afford to use public transport is one of them.
Oh how mundane! But then, I'm a Brit, so a Glock and a military-grade locking knife are illegal. I left out the wallet because this isn't an EDC list. Where's the Air Miles membership, because I'm always travelling? I'd love the exercise to be a fancy West End gym, but I can't afford those kind of prices. The local David Lloyd centre is pretty damn pricey as well.
Tuesday, 5 April 2022
Friday, 1 April 2022
Tuesday, 29 March 2022
Friday, 25 March 2022
Tuesday, 22 March 2022
Taking (Personal) Stock After The Lockdowns - Part Two
What did I do before the Great Void that is still worth doing?
I was whinging about the cost and content of movies, and the cost and quality of eating out, before 2020. My ability to leave almost all of it on the gym floor and still make the commute home was waning. Millennials have been ruining the workplace, and everywhere else, with their virtue-signalling and bullying since about 2010. Corporate hypocrisy has always been strong, but for an employer to claim it cares about my `well-being' while moving all the desks closer together and turning the aircon down...? And TV programmes, even the police shows, featuring strong independent women being irritated by dumb, insensitive men? Puh. Lease.
Movies. okay, a new one now and again when I like the idea. Most of my movie watching will be at home. Let's try finding some of those 70's movies I liked and seeing them again. MUBI has a reasonable good selection of art movies. What I miss: going out to the cinema.
Restaurants. Apparently lots of chefs have lost their sense of taste because of the Virus. Sit-down meals are pretty much out at these prices.
Sadlers Wells. Just booked some shows in the 2022 Flamenco season this June.
Gym. Replaced by light exercises at home. As befits my years.
Museums and Galleries. Now that they are abandoning advance booking, and have dropped masks, this is back on. Let's have a project to go round all the ones I never had time to get to.
Foreign trips. Entirely dependent on other countries and airlines getting the message.
Hanging out in cafes. Sure. Not writing though. Don't like shlepping a shoulder bag everywhere now.
What do I do instead?
Snacks in bijou cafes.
Walks and trips to places in London I haven't been to for years.
More housekeeping and gardening. (Care for your house, care for yourself.)
For the moment that will do.
I was whinging about the cost and content of movies, and the cost and quality of eating out, before 2020. My ability to leave almost all of it on the gym floor and still make the commute home was waning. Millennials have been ruining the workplace, and everywhere else, with their virtue-signalling and bullying since about 2010. Corporate hypocrisy has always been strong, but for an employer to claim it cares about my `well-being' while moving all the desks closer together and turning the aircon down...? And TV programmes, even the police shows, featuring strong independent women being irritated by dumb, insensitive men? Puh. Lease.
Movies. okay, a new one now and again when I like the idea. Most of my movie watching will be at home. Let's try finding some of those 70's movies I liked and seeing them again. MUBI has a reasonable good selection of art movies. What I miss: going out to the cinema.
Restaurants. Apparently lots of chefs have lost their sense of taste because of the Virus. Sit-down meals are pretty much out at these prices.
Sadlers Wells. Just booked some shows in the 2022 Flamenco season this June.
Gym. Replaced by light exercises at home. As befits my years.
Museums and Galleries. Now that they are abandoning advance booking, and have dropped masks, this is back on. Let's have a project to go round all the ones I never had time to get to.
Foreign trips. Entirely dependent on other countries and airlines getting the message.
Hanging out in cafes. Sure. Not writing though. Don't like shlepping a shoulder bag everywhere now.
What do I do instead?
Snacks in bijou cafes.
Walks and trips to places in London I haven't been to for years.
More housekeeping and gardening. (Care for your house, care for yourself.)
For the moment that will do.
Friday, 18 March 2022
Taking (Personal) Stock After The Lockdowns - Part One
Sunday will be the second anniversary of the UK Lockdown.
Just to be clear: f**k everyone who imposed, administered or enabled lockdowns. A special Circle of Hell is being dug for them now.
It's supposed to be over now. I will believe that when we get through Winter 22/23 without any backsliding "Plan B's".
Anyway, let's take stock (*).
I've been trying to work out if I'm suffering from any kind of Post-Lockdown-Stress-Disorder. After all, I keep reading that I should be. Everyone else is, if they are a journalist.
I wasn't scared of The Virus. I had a laptop job and I live on my own, so I wasn't ever going to get close enough to anyone to get it.
I was concerned about a bogus stay-at-home order from some bored track-and-tracer having a lark.
So I took sensible precautions: no Track and Trace app, no signing in anywhere, no PCR tests, get the jabs to avoid pariah status, stay away from travel, and have nothing to do with people in the NHS (hospital workers are a primary vector of contagion, because hospitals are where all the sick people go).
I walked every day. Still do.
I did not put on a `lockdown stone'. Nor did I binge-watch anything. Well, unless you count You Tube. I did not have problems sleeping. I did save a bunch of money.
Basically, my strategy, after the first six or so weeks I spent in mild shock, was: wake me up when this b**ls**t is over. It seemed to have served me well.
Eventually I got into ordering stuff online and that is not going to change. I still shop for food, and I shopped for headphones, and I prefer to buy books and CDs from actual shops. Not going back into department stores unless it is utterly unavoidable.
What did I miss?
I used to go to Sadlers Wells, to a good gym in the West End, to the London art museums and galleries, to restaurants, and the Curzons and Everymans, to the big London bookshops. I used to walk in the parks, travel on the buses. Sit on the platform at Barons Court on a warm summer evening waiting for a District Line train. I used to sit in cafes reading or writing for half-an-hour, watching the people go by, feeling the atmosphere. And I'd take a foreign trip now and again. There were some light social interactions with various people, usually behind counters.(**)
Not much, but it was enough.
But I didn't miss it, because you can only miss something that is happening without you. The Lockdown cancelled everything like a hyperactive Millennial on Twitter. Nothing was happening, so there was nothing to miss.(***) The Lockdown was a two-year void.
What did I do before the Great Void that is still worth doing?
What do I drop?
What do I do instead?
It occurred to me after a while that I would have been asking those questions last year in a no-Virus alternative universe, because those questions aren't about the Virus, but about retirement. Under the circumstances, the two have been a little muddled for a while.
(*) This is about my life. If you lost a loved one, or a job, or a business, or your children were badly affected, or you got divorced, or your health was compromised, my condolences.
(**) For complicated but tedious reasons, office socialising was de minimus.
(***) This only makes sense if you live One Day At A Time. Normies can miss things that used to happen, but don't now. But that's Normies for you: they don't make sense.
Just to be clear: f**k everyone who imposed, administered or enabled lockdowns. A special Circle of Hell is being dug for them now.
It's supposed to be over now. I will believe that when we get through Winter 22/23 without any backsliding "Plan B's".
Anyway, let's take stock (*).
I've been trying to work out if I'm suffering from any kind of Post-Lockdown-Stress-Disorder. After all, I keep reading that I should be. Everyone else is, if they are a journalist.
I wasn't scared of The Virus. I had a laptop job and I live on my own, so I wasn't ever going to get close enough to anyone to get it.
I was concerned about a bogus stay-at-home order from some bored track-and-tracer having a lark.
So I took sensible precautions: no Track and Trace app, no signing in anywhere, no PCR tests, get the jabs to avoid pariah status, stay away from travel, and have nothing to do with people in the NHS (hospital workers are a primary vector of contagion, because hospitals are where all the sick people go).
I walked every day. Still do.
I did not put on a `lockdown stone'. Nor did I binge-watch anything. Well, unless you count You Tube. I did not have problems sleeping. I did save a bunch of money.
Basically, my strategy, after the first six or so weeks I spent in mild shock, was: wake me up when this b**ls**t is over. It seemed to have served me well.
Eventually I got into ordering stuff online and that is not going to change. I still shop for food, and I shopped for headphones, and I prefer to buy books and CDs from actual shops. Not going back into department stores unless it is utterly unavoidable.
What did I miss?
I used to go to Sadlers Wells, to a good gym in the West End, to the London art museums and galleries, to restaurants, and the Curzons and Everymans, to the big London bookshops. I used to walk in the parks, travel on the buses. Sit on the platform at Barons Court on a warm summer evening waiting for a District Line train. I used to sit in cafes reading or writing for half-an-hour, watching the people go by, feeling the atmosphere. And I'd take a foreign trip now and again. There were some light social interactions with various people, usually behind counters.(**)
Not much, but it was enough.
But I didn't miss it, because you can only miss something that is happening without you. The Lockdown cancelled everything like a hyperactive Millennial on Twitter. Nothing was happening, so there was nothing to miss.(***) The Lockdown was a two-year void.
What did I do before the Great Void that is still worth doing?
What do I drop?
What do I do instead?
It occurred to me after a while that I would have been asking those questions last year in a no-Virus alternative universe, because those questions aren't about the Virus, but about retirement. Under the circumstances, the two have been a little muddled for a while.
(*) This is about my life. If you lost a loved one, or a job, or a business, or your children were badly affected, or you got divorced, or your health was compromised, my condolences.
(**) For complicated but tedious reasons, office socialising was de minimus.
(***) This only makes sense if you live One Day At A Time. Normies can miss things that used to happen, but don't now. But that's Normies for you: they don't make sense.
Tuesday, 15 March 2022
Things You Never Thought About 743: Carriage Ramps
Carriage ramps. The thing that station staff occasionally put put onto a train so someone in a wheelchair can get off or on. It's probably a generic thing, right? Mark One carriage ramp, for use on all occasions.
Nope.
Carriage ramps are special. You can't use a class 458 ramp on class 707 stock. Not and keep your job anyway. Station staff have to know what class of stock is pulling in so they can get the right ramp. And heaven help them if the first four cars are different from the last four, and the ramp is for the last four. I just somehow doubt that level of train formation information gets sent anywhere.
(You may have to enlarge to see the details.)
Nope.
Carriage ramps are special. You can't use a class 458 ramp on class 707 stock. Not and keep your job anyway. Station staff have to know what class of stock is pulling in so they can get the right ramp. And heaven help them if the first four cars are different from the last four, and the ramp is for the last four. I just somehow doubt that level of train formation information gets sent anywhere.
(You may have to enlarge to see the details.)
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