I’ve got a very busy week coming up, but everything is scheduled in neatly and will get done. Just about!
I spent most of today working on my jam game, though I did also have a bit of editing to do. My four main projects this week are coding, cleaning, day job work and Christmas prep – there’s quite a lot to do. Nevertheless, it all needs doing so I will beaver on!
Another busy day tomorrow.
Today’s earworm playlist:
Wynter Gordon – ‘Dirty Talk’
I live in vintage ’80s jumpers at this time of year, and this pink and black one – picked up at a vintage fair in late 2017 – is still one of my favourites.
This year, I’ve been wearing it with my Christmas loungewear from Lucy Locket Loves, because it really picks up the bright pink stars in the pattern. Wide trousers are not super ’80s so I tuck them into slouch boots if I want to look period appropriate!
Today’s earworm playlist:
Blondie – ‘Hanging On The Telephone’
Wham! – ‘Last Christmas’
I’ve had this badge since 1988.
Mum and Dad took me to the ‘Free Nelson Mandela’ march on Glasgow Green. I was only three but I remember the crowds and the chanting vividly, and being able to watch the speakers and performers on the stage from a long way back in the crowd. I have a memory of being up on a ladder in order to be able to see, although I may be misremembering this as I’m not sure we would have taken a ladder all the way from Edinburgh!
I have a lot of badges, but this is the most special one.
Today’s earworm playlist:
Cast of Grease – ‘Greased Lightning’
Duran Duran – ‘Femme Fatale’
Wham! – ‘Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go’
Also file under ‘things I found while sorting out the house’. I’ve had this plastic notepad case (complete with half a notepad still inside) since early childhood, and every time I go back to Shetland (which isn’t often these days) I try and fail to find where the shop was based on my hazy childhood memories.
The design looks early ’80s to me (it has that trailing ’70s colour scheme of brown and cream) so it’s possible that either (a) my mum picked it up a couple of years before I was born and gave it to me when I was little, or (b) the shop was still using an old design when I was visiting a lot in the late ’80s.
Apologies for the ‘soft focus’. My phone lens had some gunk on it that I’ve cleaned off now.
Today’s earworm playlist:
Julian Nott – ‘Wallace And Gromit Theme’
I am officially out of phone box photos to share with you, so it’s a different kind of Phone Box Thursday this week!
Last year, when I was still doing Music Video Monday posts, I did a piece on Heaven 17’s ‘Let Me Go’, which is a very nice example of classic red phone box use in music videos (while you can’t actually tell that the phone box is red in this black and white video, it was made in 1982 and therefore prior to the days when councils and other organisations started repainting phone boxes in funky non-red colours, so I am pretty much 100% certain that it was red).
This week, I thought I’d track down the location of the video shoot to see if the phone box was still there! This will be a regular feature when my own phone box collection is running short, so expect a few more posts on phone boxes from music videos and TV shows in the near future.
It took me a while to track down this London street, but due to the fact that later in the video Glenn Gregory runs past the National Westminster Bank at number 41, I managed to work out that the street in question was Lothbury, with the help of this beautifully ’80s architecture pamphlet about the bank building. It is, of course, no longer a NatWest, because bank branches never stay in the same place for very long!
Here it is on Google Street View (coordinates 51°51’47.2″N, 0°08’94.8″W)…
…and woe – you can see that the phone box in question is no longer there! Looking back through the Street View historical slider, it was also not there in the earliest Street View image taken in 2008, so it’s been gone for some time, sadly.
…there are a couple of classic phone boxes quite close to each other, one repainted black. So maybe one of them is the original ‘Let Me Go’ phone box and was moved by the council at some point between 1982 and 2008? You never know!
I may have some regularly-scheduled phone boxes for you next week, as Mum and Dad have identified a few more to collect in Dumfries and Galloway. Otherwise, I’ll be back in the world of ’80s music videos again!
Just another mile today…
…as I woke up with a slightly sore shoulder (I had planned to do closer to two miles today but decided to keep it short and gentle again).
I’m still not sleeping well, and I don’t feel productive at all this week – I’m a bit slow to get going with everything. Still, I’m managing to get a bit of work on my current writing project done every day, which is great.
Despite the uncertainty about absolutely everything at the moment, I am 100% certain that two things will be the case by the end of 2020:
Everyone needs a hobby, or twenty in my case. Especially at the moment.
Videogaming tonight, running in the morning, writing during the day, rinse and repeat.
Today’s earworm playlist:
Billy Idol – ‘Rebel Yell’
Revo – ‘Ship Upon The Open Skies’
Thought Beings – ‘Shakedown’
A slight diversion on a usual running route today…
…which made it a three-mile-plus run. Always good to get the extra distance in.
I’ve been feeling like my personal fashion style has changed again recently. When I reached my target weight in 2018 and had to buy a whole new wardrobe as a result, I went for a mixture of timeless investment pieces, which I knew would last me for life if I took care of them, and fun vintage finds, which satisfied my obsession with ’80s fashion.
I have not worn any of that stuff in months. My lifestyle, even before the lockdown, has shifted to that of a sort of active homebody – I get up in the morning and change into running gear, and after my run I go for my shower and then throw on a comfy leggings/t-shirt/jumper combo, because I know I’m going to be spending the rest of the day either on the sofa, doing housework, or doing a bit of yoga or Pilates. The numerous pairs of good quality jeans I bought two years ago are not comfy or casual enough for a spontaneous yoga session. My vintage ’80s stuff, other than my well-loved collection of cosy winter jumpers, is too fancy for lounging around the house. I have not worn shoes other than running shoes for over a month: I have two pairs in rotation for actual running, and one ancient pair that I use for going out to the garage or garden.
Even pre-lockdown, I rarely had anything to go to that required dressing up – nobody minds what you wear to Slimming World or ukulele class, and even poetry night is far from a formal affair. This year, I have only been out of leggings a handful of times – New Year’s Day, the LeBrock gig, a couple of family meals in February… and I think that’s about it. Most of my leggings cost £2 from Primark, but they’re getting a LOT more wear than the £50 jeans hanging in my wardrobe.
I’m not about to get rid of what I bought in 2018 – there may come a time when I’m interacting with the world on a regular enough basis that I might make the effort to wear something with actual fastenings again, although I expect it will be a slow road out of lockdown for me personally seeing as I’m appreciating the peace and quiet so much – but I don’t see myself buying any more investment pieces or filling up my bag at vintage fairs again for a good couple of years at least.
I may start spending slightly more than £2 on leggings though, seeing as they’ve been so good to me recently.
Today’s earworm playlist:
Hiroki Morishita – ‘Just Across This Mountain And We’ll Arrive Soon’
Nina Nesbitt – ‘Stay Out’
Nobuo Uematsu – ‘On Our Way’
Cast of The Muppet Christmas Carol – ‘It Feels Like Christmas’
Red Hot Chili Peppers – ‘Road Trippin”
Duran Duran – ‘A View To A Kill’
Gordon Duncan – ‘Sleeping Tune’*
*This has been an earworm today because Dad recorded a nyckelharpa version and put it on YouTube. Well recommended for the Scottish scenery pictures.
I did my most enjoyable run in ages this morning…
…because I ran where I wanted to run and as far as I wanted to run, instead of just doing what was scheduled on the plan. I’ve decided to throw the plan out of the window for a couple of weeks and just focus on running every day in a way I enjoy – that seems to be what’s best for my mental health at the moment. It’s been really hard to get out of my marathon training mindset, and I think I need to let go of plans and schedules and ‘training’ for a while.
Geth and I are still really struggling with having lost an hour at the weekend, and have not adjusted at all yet. As such, we are both feeling very sluggish this week – unable to wake up at the proper time and then tossing and turning (and worrying) at night because it takes so long to get to sleep. Today is the start of a new habit of ‘secondary exercise’ – because we’re not doing our usual amount of walking, we’re losing out on a lot of exercise, so we’re going to get back into RingFit Adventure some evenings, and I’m going to try out some YouTube yoga and things as well. I’m hoping that this, combined with the running, will wear me out enough that I’ll be able to get to sleep at a reasonable time!
The afternoon has mostly been admin, but I’ve got a bit of day job work to keep me occupied for the rest of the week, and I’m really enjoying my adventure game project as well. I finally finished the Bravely Default II demo last night, but I’ve got what feels like infinite videogames still to play!
Today’s earworm playlist:
Mike Harding and Myfanwy Talog – ‘DangerMouse Main Theme’
Revo – ‘Town 1 [Bravely Default II Soundtrack]’
Duran Duran – ‘Violence Of Summer (Love’s Taking Over)’
Duran Duran – ‘Femme Fatale’
Revo – ‘Battle Normal 1 [Bravely Default II Soundtrack]’
Ashbury Heights – ‘Die By Numbers’
Alvin & The Chipmunks – ‘We’re The Chipmunks’
Matthew Wilder – ‘Break My Stride’
Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Caballé – ‘Barcelona’
After the kind of interval session that just a week ago I could not have imagined fitting into my training until at least the summer…
…I came back home for a fairly unplanned afternoon. Work has been quiet for the last couple of weeks; I was (and still am) hopeful that because most academics are now working from home, they will have more time to write papers and hence more papers to send to me, but I suppose that everyone will be trying to negotiate a new normal at the moment before they can settle back into their work. However, I have had some constructive feedback on my most recent text adventure game, so I was able to spend most of the afternoon working on the next update for that.
Normally I’d be at ukulele class tonight. I’m not, obviously; it’s cancelled like everything else. As such, while it’s not a normal Wednesday, it’s now a ‘new normal’ day: the same as yesterday, and the same as tomorrow.
Today’s earworm playlist:
Koichi Sugiyama – ‘Unflinchable Courage’
Demi Lovato – ‘Confident’
Toto – ‘Africa’*
*I decided two weeks ago that Toto’s ‘Africa’ would be my handwashing song during the coronavirus pandemic. I have now washed my hands so much that it is also starting to become a frequent earworm.
A midweek-length run today…
…and a fairly good afternoon of admin before I headed off to ukulele class this evening. We learnt (-ish) a new song, so I’ve got lots to practise over the half term break.
It’s weigh-in tomorrow, and I’ve had another good week, so fingers crossed…
Del Amitri – ‘Nothing Ever Happens’
Frankie Miller – ‘Caledonia’
Sacre – ‘The London Marathon’
Carl Orff – ‘Gassenhauer’
Vangelis – ‘Chariots Of Fire’
The Midnight – ‘Collateral’
Justin Bieber – ‘Love Yourself’