You can’t start a new year any better than getting home at 2am, sleeping badly, taking your hangover out for a walk in the New Year’s Day sunshine and then going to the theatre in the evening to see Hamilton, can you?
Of course, you could also sit in and do a jigsaw and drink lots of tea and watch the final episode of the final season of Lucifer. But that would be better for the 2nd of January, when the weather is grey and overcast.
(I’m happy they actually wrapped up Lucifer properly. I hate it when a show stops suddenly (cancelled!) without answering the big questions that got you watching it in the first place, and you have to make your own assumptions about how it should have ended. This was very definitely The End of Lucifer and There will be No More.) (If you’re unfamiliar with the premise of Lucifer, the devil – the titular Lucifer – got bored with hell and is now running a nightclub in LA. It’s basically a police procedural (Lucifer helps out the LAPD with murder investigations) with some added angels and demons. And therapy.)
By the time we get to January 4th I’m back at work, for half a day only, and with my afternoon off, Husband and I go to the cinema to see The King’s Man. (“What are we going to do now?” Husband asks. “We’ve seen all the big action blockbuster films that were coming out.” I’m keen to go see the new Death on the Nile at the cinema. All that sunshine and desert scenery on the big screen will be next best thing to a holiday.)
This week we started watching Wheel of Time – and finished the first season in four sittings. It’s kind of like Lord of the Rings, (a group of characters in a mythical magical landscape have to overcome an unspecified Evil One) but with more and much stronger female characters. It’s based on a series of books (which I haven’t read) so there will probably be more seasons to come.
(This reminds me I only got halfway through watching Shadow and Bone on Netflix – must go back and finish that.)
This week I made a trip to hospital, not for myself, but to collect a friend who had had surgery. It wasn’t at all clear where I was supposed to go, and seeing me wondering around looking lost, a man in blue (medical staff of some kind) who was obviously at end of his shift and on his way home, took me to the reception area and logged on to find out where my friend was. How guilty did I feel about that! While I was waiting (having been directed to the correct area) I saw several scrubs-clad staff walk past. They all looked tired, they all seemed to be limping. A 12 hour shift will do that to you.
(My friend is fine, thanks for asking. She’s already recovering and feeling better after her surgery.)
My team WhatsApp has been plunging this week as the curse of Omicron hits us – several team members have come down with it or are recovering after having it over Christmas. The symptoms seem to present like any nasty cold you might get at this wintry time of year, so the wisdom seems to be treat a bad cold as the virus until testing proves otherwise.
Covid news: Infection rates in the UK are around 3x what they were this time last year, and I remember feeling down and gloom about that. Some NHS trusts are declaring an emergency situation, they are so overwhelmed.
More Covid news: Novak Djokovic flew into Australia to compete in the Australian Open tennis tournament. There was some irregularity with his visa, and he is now in an immigration hotel while his case is investigated. It’s not clear what the story is, but it could be someone stuffed up on his visa paperwork, whoever granted his vaccination exemption did not have the authority to do that, or he hasn’t provided all the proofs required to support his exemption. It’s become a political hot potato. We should find out the full story in the next few days. I’m interested to hear what really happened. I’m also annoyed that sportspeople are exempted from the entry requirements that citizens have to adhere to.
While doing jigsaw puzzles in the past weeks, we.have been listening to music playlists by year. We started with the 80s but have now moved back to the 70s. 1977 was a strange year; that was the year that punk hit the airwaves. In the same year you have “Pretty Vacant” by the Sex Pistols and “Peaches” by The Stranglers alongside “Mull of Kintyre” by Wings and “Chanson D’Amour” by The Manhattan Transfer. (I like all these songs!)
If 1977 was the year of contradictions, 1978 was the year of songs you couldn’t write today – for example Queen “Fat Bottom Girls” and Randy Newman “Short People”. Although Joe Tex’s “Ain’t gonna bump no more (with no big fat woman)” (from 1977) probably doesn’t get much airplay these days to be fair.
Did you make any crazy resolutions you might be regretting? Remember – the trick is to make your goals too small to fail. My aim is to continue to do 3 x 1 minute yoga poses every day (3 minutes of yoga, how easy is that!) and do at least one Duolingo lesson to keep my learning streak up (77 days in my current streak).
Let me know of you have made any (crazy or not) resolutions!
Tales from Tobhamhor 