So this is Lockdown Day 78
The world stays mad, bad and sad but in our own little bubble there is nothing much new to report apart from the fact that I managed to get a Waitrose delivery yesterday. I thought I was hallucinating last week when I saw they had some delivery slots available but very quickly booked one. I did have some guilty moments when I wondered if I was depriving some vulnerable person of it but then I thought "Sod it. We're both over 60, we haven't got a car, we're shopping for an elderly person and some of what I buy will be for him (admittedly not very much)" so my guilty moments didn't last very long! It was good to stock up on some of the things we were running short of as we can't always rely on Tesco Express to have what we want. They are amazingly well stocked but they are basically a small shop attached to a garage and simply can't have everything. I have been to Waitrose twice since lockdown began as it is only a 15' walk away but I can't buy masses as I have to carry everything back so it was very good to be able to get things that weigh more.
In other news my hair has turned quite an interesting mixture of colours. I am grey on top, lighter brown at the ends and darker brown (my original colour) underneath. I thought I would turn out to be uniformly grey by now but that doesn't seem to be the case. I can't see me being able to go to the hairdressers for at least another month so I shall be fascinated to see what mix of colours my hair is by then.
We haven't been watching all that much on the television apart from Springwatch which we both think works better with the new format than it did with the old one. Even with this we have managed to get a couple of days behind as we were made aware that the Bristol Old Vic semi-staged production of The Messiah was available briefly on YouTube. We were very glad to see it as it worked amazingly well and was hugely powerful. We also managed to watch The Cellist, part of the Royal Opera House's Our House to Your House series. This is much the newest performance they have shown and we were very pleased to have the chance to see it as we missed it when it was on. Basically it tells the story of Jacqueline du Pre, danced by Lauren Cuthbertson, and her relationship with the Instrument, danced by Marcellino Sambe, and the Conductor, performed by Matthew Ball. It is a short piece but very moving and Marcellino Sambe is extraordinary as he almost turns himself into a cello.
I'm also in the middle of watching a film from the British Museum about the Pompeii exhibition that they staged in 2013. I took my mum and her cousin Betty to see it at the time and was a bit horrified to find that I remembered very little of what I saw and a lot about the stress of escorting 2 octogenarians around London to get to and from the exhibition! When I looked up my LJ entry I discovered I had mentioned a lot of the items that the film was highlighting. I am now left wondering how I could possibly have forgotten seeing a statue of the god Pan having sex with a goat!
And with that on with the meme.
4. What item of clothing is your least favourite to shop for?
Shoes. I have wide feet with one foot which is half a size bigger than the other so never know what size is actually going to fit me as sizing can vary considerably according to style and where the shoes are made. My feet also blister very easily and I have come to the sad realisation that sandals in summer are just too painful to wear so I have to find light shoes that are comfortable, which isn't easy.
5. If you had only one window to look out of for the next six months, what would you want to see out that window?
The sea. I am really missing it at the moment. We speak to our friends in Bournemouth every week and I am very envious of the fact that they can just see the sea from their windows even though I would not want to be stuck in their (very nice) flat.
6. Is there something you love to eat that no one else in your family likes?
Parsnips. I love them and J dislikes them intensely.
7. Do you prefer shopping online or in a store?
Up until recently I would have said I preferred shopping in a store but now even when lockdown ends there is really not very much I want to go into town to buy, apart from books which I shouldn't be buying. Our town centre was suffering even before lockdown began because of the much delayed rebuilding of our shopping centre so a lot of shops had gone anyway and shopping was not a pleasant experience any more.
8. What do you like least about living in your city/town?
See above about the fact that a lot of shops have closed. We also have far too many high rise office blocks, which are being turned into flats, and they are building more tall blocks of flats going ever higher. This place seems to be overflowing with some really ugly buildings and a large amount of concrete in the town centre.
The rest of the June questions behind the cut.
9 What do you like most about living in your city/town?
10 What’s your favorite font?
11 If money were no object, but you could only choose one, would you rather travel somewhere via a first-class travel method or stay somewhere in a first-class accommodation?
12 What is your favorite place in your home? (Post a photo?)
13 What’s a popular vacation spot you have no interest whatsoever in visiting?
14 Who was your favorite teen heartthrob celebrity when you were a pre-teen?
15 Do you prefer big parties or smaller, more intimate gatherings?
16 If you had to create an alias or pseudonym for work purposes, what name would you use?
17 If you were chosen to be the first human to make contact with aliens, would you want to?
18 Would you rather travel a hundred years in the past or a hundred years in the future?
19 When you take a shower, do you let the water warm up before you step in, or do you turn the water on after you step in?
20 What quality makes you feel fierce and powerful? How does that quality manifest itself in your life?
21 At the summer solstice, the light begins to lessen. What in your life would you like to see decrease in the coming months?
22 What was your favorite piece of playground equipment when you were little?
23 Chocolate or vanilla? Or something else?
24 Have you ever deleted a post on social media because you had a low percentage of "likes"?
25 Do enjoy “roughing it” types of vacations such as camping or hiking, or are you more of a five-star hotel/cruise sort of vacationer?
26 If you could become new “side character” in any novel, which novel would you be a part of?
27 When you mentally go to your “happy place,” what does it look like in your mind?
28 Do you prefer working along or as part of a team?
29 What is your least favorite musical band? Why don’t you like them?
30 The year is half over now. What’s been the highlight of 2020 for you so far?
In other news my hair has turned quite an interesting mixture of colours. I am grey on top, lighter brown at the ends and darker brown (my original colour) underneath. I thought I would turn out to be uniformly grey by now but that doesn't seem to be the case. I can't see me being able to go to the hairdressers for at least another month so I shall be fascinated to see what mix of colours my hair is by then.
We haven't been watching all that much on the television apart from Springwatch which we both think works better with the new format than it did with the old one. Even with this we have managed to get a couple of days behind as we were made aware that the Bristol Old Vic semi-staged production of The Messiah was available briefly on YouTube. We were very glad to see it as it worked amazingly well and was hugely powerful. We also managed to watch The Cellist, part of the Royal Opera House's Our House to Your House series. This is much the newest performance they have shown and we were very pleased to have the chance to see it as we missed it when it was on. Basically it tells the story of Jacqueline du Pre, danced by Lauren Cuthbertson, and her relationship with the Instrument, danced by Marcellino Sambe, and the Conductor, performed by Matthew Ball. It is a short piece but very moving and Marcellino Sambe is extraordinary as he almost turns himself into a cello.
I'm also in the middle of watching a film from the British Museum about the Pompeii exhibition that they staged in 2013. I took my mum and her cousin Betty to see it at the time and was a bit horrified to find that I remembered very little of what I saw and a lot about the stress of escorting 2 octogenarians around London to get to and from the exhibition! When I looked up my LJ entry I discovered I had mentioned a lot of the items that the film was highlighting. I am now left wondering how I could possibly have forgotten seeing a statue of the god Pan having sex with a goat!
And with that on with the meme.
4. What item of clothing is your least favourite to shop for?
Shoes. I have wide feet with one foot which is half a size bigger than the other so never know what size is actually going to fit me as sizing can vary considerably according to style and where the shoes are made. My feet also blister very easily and I have come to the sad realisation that sandals in summer are just too painful to wear so I have to find light shoes that are comfortable, which isn't easy.
5. If you had only one window to look out of for the next six months, what would you want to see out that window?
The sea. I am really missing it at the moment. We speak to our friends in Bournemouth every week and I am very envious of the fact that they can just see the sea from their windows even though I would not want to be stuck in their (very nice) flat.
6. Is there something you love to eat that no one else in your family likes?
Parsnips. I love them and J dislikes them intensely.
7. Do you prefer shopping online or in a store?
Up until recently I would have said I preferred shopping in a store but now even when lockdown ends there is really not very much I want to go into town to buy, apart from books which I shouldn't be buying. Our town centre was suffering even before lockdown began because of the much delayed rebuilding of our shopping centre so a lot of shops had gone anyway and shopping was not a pleasant experience any more.
8. What do you like least about living in your city/town?
See above about the fact that a lot of shops have closed. We also have far too many high rise office blocks, which are being turned into flats, and they are building more tall blocks of flats going ever higher. This place seems to be overflowing with some really ugly buildings and a large amount of concrete in the town centre.
The rest of the June questions behind the cut.
9 What do you like most about living in your city/town?
10 What’s your favorite font?
11 If money were no object, but you could only choose one, would you rather travel somewhere via a first-class travel method or stay somewhere in a first-class accommodation?
12 What is your favorite place in your home? (Post a photo?)
13 What’s a popular vacation spot you have no interest whatsoever in visiting?
14 Who was your favorite teen heartthrob celebrity when you were a pre-teen?
15 Do you prefer big parties or smaller, more intimate gatherings?
16 If you had to create an alias or pseudonym for work purposes, what name would you use?
17 If you were chosen to be the first human to make contact with aliens, would you want to?
18 Would you rather travel a hundred years in the past or a hundred years in the future?
19 When you take a shower, do you let the water warm up before you step in, or do you turn the water on after you step in?
20 What quality makes you feel fierce and powerful? How does that quality manifest itself in your life?
21 At the summer solstice, the light begins to lessen. What in your life would you like to see decrease in the coming months?
22 What was your favorite piece of playground equipment when you were little?
23 Chocolate or vanilla? Or something else?
24 Have you ever deleted a post on social media because you had a low percentage of "likes"?
25 Do enjoy “roughing it” types of vacations such as camping or hiking, or are you more of a five-star hotel/cruise sort of vacationer?
26 If you could become new “side character” in any novel, which novel would you be a part of?
27 When you mentally go to your “happy place,” what does it look like in your mind?
28 Do you prefer working along or as part of a team?
29 What is your least favorite musical band? Why don’t you like them?
30 The year is half over now. What’s been the highlight of 2020 for you so far?