Day 253 – Reflections on Lockdown

This is the first blog in 253 days that has not have a blog cover photo with Honey the Dog in it. In fact it has not blog cover photo and no photos at all!!

This is because my phone ran out of battery and is now refusing to charge. So I currently don’t have a phone.

This is causing me a lot of stress after a very productive day. The stress is more a build up of worry of not having a phone for a while, if it needs to get fixed and the cost of this, as I am very short of money at the moment.

I spent a few extra hours in my flat trying to work out how to get it charged again and making phone calls I needed to make on my landline phone in my flat.

This resulted in me returning to the boat at 9pm and thus writing this blog a lot later than normal.

Fingers crossed the phone issue is only temporary and I will have it working again tomorrow.

Readers Corner

Ian

Ian posted a comment on yesterday’s blog (Day 252) saying:

“Every Christmas morning when we are opening our presents we play The Beach Boys Christmas album from 1963. This has been our tradition for over 30 years and although the Beach Boys very early material was all about sun, surfing, cars and girls, their catalogue transcends way beyond these topics and style. I have been a fan all my life and love the rich harmonies and arrangements. Don’t worry we play the likes of Slade, Wizzard and Shakin Stevens as well lol.”.

Thanks for sharing Ian! I will look up Beach Boys Christmas album 1963 and include it tomorrow (hopefully) in ‘Christmas Music Corner’.

Pat

Pat posted a Facebook Comment on yesterday’s blog (Day 252) saying:

“Yeah…When Younger And On My School Holidays In Ireland I Would Help My Grandfather With His Cutting And Drying The Peat Then Filling Up Bags And Taking It Out To The Road Then Get A Tractor And Trailer To Take It All Home…Was Back Breaking Work But I Enjoyed It And My Grandfather’s Company.. Happier Times.. Stay Safe and Stay Well All…“.

Thanks for the lovely memory Pat! I know what it is like to cut, dry, turn and collect the Peat 🙂

Christmas Music Corner

Today we have Hannah’s ultimate Christmas Playlist. She wrote:

“It’s been about 15 years in the making, starting on iTunes when I was still in high school, and transferred to Spotify in 2018.

I am continuously adding to it every time I find a new Christmas song. Like “Santa’s a Scotsman” you told me about last week.

I try to not let myself get festive until December 1st, and then really go for it. The anticipation is certainly part of the fun, but also I think 25 days is plenty of time to be in the Christmas spirit and I don’t want to draw it out too much in case it loses some of its charm.”.

So here we have Unparalleled Christmas by Hannah Christmas Lannetta.

The playlist description:

“Curated over 16 years and available for the first time on Spotify in a new concise format without 7 versions of Sleigh Ride – this is the only christmas playlist you will ever need, trust me, I know what I’m doing.”

It has 182 songs and is 9 hours, 30 minutes long!!

As I come to the end of this blog, I am needing to go to bed and rest. I didn’t get to sleep until 1am last night and I am aware that the late nights are not good for me.

Today the weather has been cold, but dry. There was a lovely clear sky and sunset this evening, but my phone had just run out of battery at this point and so I couldn’t get a photo of it.

Thanks for reading.

Jim xx