Today, I have done very little but sit at my computer and do some ‘work’. I didn’t go for a long walk or run. But actually am feeling quite good – I think it is because it feels like I have been productive and achieved something today.
Instead of a long walk, we had a quick, 20 minute walk in ‘Kate’s Park’ (photos). This is a hidden mini-park close to where I live, which is at the back of my friend Kate’s garden. Hence, I call it ‘Kate’s Park’.
At times, outwith lock-down Honey the Dog spends a few nights at Kate’s house. Apparently, Honey stands on the sofa and looks out the window (Kate lives on the 2nd floor) and watches the animals in ‘Kate’s Park’ – there is always loads of squirrels and cats! She gets really excited when she sees any animals!
My morning did not start so well. I didn’t get to sleep till after 2am – and woke up up 3am and couldn’t get back to sleep. This was the knock-on effect of having two mornings (Saturday and Sunday) when I didn’t have to get up early and so was going to bed late.
My lack of sleep resulted in me sleeping through my clock radio alarms, that started at 7.30am. Waking up at 8.44am!
8.45am is when I am meant to be in the Zoom Room to start Daily Morning Chi Gong. The session doesn’t start until 9.10am – but I say I will be in the room from 8.45am for anyone needing help setting up (new to Zoom) or want to just drop by early and say hello.
Interestingly, Honey the Dog, didn’t wake me up either. In the early days of lock-down, she would wake me up at 7am every morning! It must be due to all the long walks we have been going on – she is now exhausted 😉
Anyway – I shot out of bed. And was in the Zoom Room by 8.52am. No one arrived till 9.02am – but I also enjoy the 20 minutes or so just to still my mind, etc…
Poor Honey the Dog was expecting to go out for her morning walk and have her breakfast. But she had to wait until 11am for a walk and breakfast at 11.30am! I had breakfast at midday.
I then spent most of the day learning how to use the Open Source software Audacity. Audacity is a great piece of software, that allows you to edit audible files and create them. If you are looking for a piece of software to do this, I would highly recommend Audacity – as it is open-source it is totally free to use. Open source software is usually free and open for programmers to change the software as they want. The most common piece of open source software is Word Press (which this website is based on).
Last week, I recorded all my blogs to be uploaded to be played as audible for the radio station Deepness Dementia Radio. Not having any specific software to do this, I used Zoom, as I knew how to use it. The files it saved the recording in was MP4 and M4A format. I was given login details to the radio station and tried uploading the recordings in MP4 format, but knowing MP4 is for video files, it didn’t accept this file format. But it accepted the other file format, MP4.
The first 7 days of the blog were played on the radio station on Friday, one after each other, but there was no sound for them.
So today, I spent a considerable amount of time, learning how to convert MP4 files to WAV format. I then uploaded 7 blogs into one big file on Audacity and recorded an introduction at the start and a piece of music at the beginning and between each blog.
This all took considerable amount of time. But I have now got up to Day 14.
Actually, I feel pretty good. As I now know how to use Audacity and have recorded the blogs in a great format.
But all this, meant I didn’t have time to take Honey the Dog for a long walk or run. Instead I spent 8 hours starting at my computer.
Then Bedtime Chi Gong. Now writing this blog!
I was hoping to share some more of Ram Dass today, but I have run out of time. Did anyone listen to the lecture from yesterday?
Readers Corner
Helen
Helen (from Sweden) put a comment this morning at the bottom of yesterdays blog, this is what she wrote:
“Yes, I enjoyed starting my Monday with some youtube videos. Thanks for sharing! Who needs police checking everyone’s following lock-down and social distancing rules when you’ve got a rhinoceros rampaging through the streets??!! I’ve heard that the Scottish Seagull is suffering when there’s no tourists to terrorise and no bags of chips to steal.
I hope you have a good week!”
Later in the morning, she also shared a link with funny signs – you can check them out by Click Here
Brian
Alongside Fi, Brian is becoming a regular supporter of Readers Corner!
Today, not only did he share some photos from his regular walk. He also shared some interesting ‘compare and contrast’ photos – taken from 2020 (yesterday in lock-down) and compared it with a photo he took of the same place last year. You can see how usually, by now Edinburgh is super busy with tourists. Where else, in lock-down it is empty!
These two photos are in a Photo Gallery, so you can click on either of them and you will see the full photo.
The difference is just absolutely unreal.
He also shared some photos of his daily walk today – which is also in a Photo Gallery, so click on the photo to see it in full size.
As I come to the end of today’s blog, I am glad that we have Readers Corner, otherwise, this blog would not have much material in it.
Pictures of rainbows seem to be cropping up everywhere in the last few days. So many houses/flats have them in the windows. Also on shop windows and outside churches, painted / drawn by different people.
That is something else that is so lovely about lock-down!
More and more I hear from different people how much they read this blog as part of their daily routine. I feel so touched, that so many people are enjoying it.
Today, it felt like life was back to normal on Easter Road (the main street close to my flat). It felt like everyone was returning back to work after a month’s holiday. Lots of cars, lorries, etc…on the streets. Loads of people and lots of non-essential shops opening up.
On the positive side of not going for a long walk today, Honey the Dog is restless – so she is almost certainly going to wake me up at 7am 😉
Go well.
Jim xx
Helen
Those comparison photos were really interesting. If am Edinburgh street looked like that normally, then I’d guess it had been blocked off for some sort of big Hollywood film production, and I’d be hoping to get a glimpse of Ewan McGregor! That one wee solitary cloud sums up social distancing perfectly.