Category Archives: Interior

Thank yous

Friday 26th March 2021, 3.40pm (day 3,501)

RTQ thank yous, 26/3/21

These cards all reside in the foyer of RTQ, the tutoring service from whom Clare rents her room, which we have both been using as something of an escape during lockdown. Thank you indeed. But hey, can we leave home, legally, after Monday? There are rumours.

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Tear down the wall

Tuesday 16th March 2021, 9.05am (day 3,491)

The Wall, 16/3/21

I don’t pose or stage photos for this blog. But sometimes I do choose them in advance. A year ago today I was walking in the Lake District. When I got home, all had changed. So, today, to mark one year since Bojo the Clown couldn’t decide what else to do and stuck us all under house arrest, here’s a tribute to a certain early 1980s rock album with which some of you may be familiar. The walls must come down, there is no alternative. How this happens is largely up to us: even if Authority will insist it’s up to them.

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Legitimate dreams of faraway places

Monday 8th March 2021, 4.20pm (day 3,483)

St Helena on globe, 8/3/21

Nothing happened today at all, except for the news — still unofficial, but it’s looking most promising — that I will be heading off to this rather remote spot at some point in the next few months, for a research project. We got the ‘yeah, OK, we’ll fund that’ email today. And very good news that is too, for all sorts of reasons.

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Calendar reminder

Wednesday 3rd March 2021, 6.45pm (day 3,478)

Calendar reminder, 3/3/21

Joe was born on 4th March 2003, so do the sums. Tomorrow he attains his maturity and I shall be the parent of an adult. My oh my.

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Marking and more marking (not even halfway)

Wednesday 10th February 2021, 11.40am (day 3,457)

Marking, 10/2/21

This has been my life for days, and will be for some time to come. This is not even a Covid thing; this endless increase in my workload is presented as something inevitable, a sign of success even. Four years ago there was a third of this number.

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Weekend supplies

Friday 22nd January 2021, 4.20pm (day 3,438)

Wine and more wine, 22/1/21

If anyone in the UK has any better ideas for what to do with this Friday evening I’d love to hear them. Have a good weekend y’all.

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Reflections of a limited existence

Tuesday 19th January 2021, 7.00pm (day 3,435)

Books in window, 20/1/21

The world is still out there, somewhere…. so we’ve been told. Across the valley, there’s a house that doesn’t seem to have removed its Christmas lights yet. Meanwhile, at home, the movie collection keeps a semblance of entertainment ticking over.

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Essential supplies

Monday 11th January 2021, 9.20am (day 3,427)

Eye drops, 11/1/21

Less than an hour into the working week and I’m already reaching for these, which is not a good sign. A side effect of screen imprisonment — I doubt I’m not the only one suffering.

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Joe at college, or maybe not

Tuesday 5th January 2021, 3.45pm (day 3,421)

Joe's rendering, 5/1/21

So schools and colleges had one day of life and now Bojo has said they’re unclean, like the rest of the country. So Joe gets to spend the next six weeks, maybe twelve, at home, while algorithms and their creators bicker to be given the right to determine his future. Conviviality and intimacy are things of the past, getting further away all the time.

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Not rush hour (a study in green)

Monday 4th January 2021, 4.15pm (day 3,420)

Victoria stairs, 4/1/21

Four days into 2021 and Bojo the Clown runs out of ideas so puts us all under house arrest again. But I still have to go to work, now and again, along with a few other people here and there.

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