At the coal face early this morning. Checked my emails n stuff. Had a call for Anne’s vans at 7.30am. It went silent. Sent an sms and got a reply saying they had been browsing the site and accidentally called. Fair enuff. Bit early anyway.
In case you have forgotten, today is Shrove Tuesday, pancake day yay. Now the thing about pancake day is that I seem to have contrived to be away from home for the last few and thus missed out on my pancakes. Last year it was on 25th Feb. We had just returned from our trip to California, a day late due to technical issues with the plane and I’d immediately gone to Brussels for a meeting. I was supposed to be in Barcelona for Mobile World Congress but that had already been cancelled. A sign of the pandemic times and of what lay ahead. I dislike MWC intensely anyway.
So this year I am making up for it. The rule with pancakes is thus
- You have them with butter, sugar and lemon juice1
- You can have as many of them as you can eat
- You don’t have to have anything else for tea so that you can get as many pancakes in as possible
1You can make your own rules. I’m not your dad (I might be).
This moment of retrospection made me look up when lockdown started for the first time in 2020. It was 16th March. Exactly one year ago today. Wowsers. One year of our lives consumed. Although we did get away last August to a partially reopened for business Wales it seems that our California trip in 2020 was really our last days of freedom. It was a terrific trip. If you had to choose “one last holiday” that would have been a good one to go for.
Time for me to enter the factory gates and clock on. I have a contract to send, a presentation slide to generate and a newsletter to write innit.
PS – it’s 11 months not one year since the start of lockdown – easily done.
…
Bitcoin continues its relentless rise for the first time hitting $50k. In a world where chaos and anarchy reigns the invisible underclass will need a means to barter for goods. A scene from Star Wars comes to mind where refugees from around the galaxy converge on an anonymous bar on some remote planet, hiding from the empire. Wild times. There is a sign at the door. Bitcoin accepted here.
Keep looking over your shoulder. There are spies everywhere. The Empire will have its taxes. There is no escape. Unless the Jedi can come to the rescue. I put my religion down as Jedi a couple of censuses ago. As good as any. I think in the last one I said I had no religion. Must for some reason grown disillusioned with organised religion, or maybe they just didn’t have a strong enough presence on my planet. I am not the Tref you are looking for.
I’ve had enough for the day. Now watching Williams v Halep in the Australian Open. Don’t normally watch that stuff. It isn’t entirely true to say I’m watching it now either. It is on the telly which is on in the background would be a more accurate way of putting it. In the meantime am blasting out some “Rock Classics”. Bit of Creedence clearwater Survival fwiw.
In due course I will choose my moment to go in and mix up some pancake batter. There is no rush for this. It is still daylight. We have not yet entered the twilight world that is pancake batter and bitcoin. What I really mean is that it’s too early, and therefore not dark enough to eat. The bitcoin thing was merely thrown in as a diversionary tactic with no thought of what I was trying to divert.
Never been to Australia. It’s not on my radar either. I don’t fancy spending 24 hours in a metal tube just to get there. I can watch video footage of it anyway. Aussie Gold Hunters springs to mind. Or words to that effect. If I had time on my hands and nothing better to do I’d consider boarding an Antipodean liner bound for Sydney. I’d want a cabin on the port side assuming we were taking the Cape Horn route. Or the Suez Canal I guess. Cuts a lot of time off the journey. Even though I’d have time on my hands it would be silly to waste it unnecessarily.
We could use the time to stop off at a few points on the way. There is an old bazaar in Cairo for example. Never been and wouldn’t mind checking out the carpets. And the pyramids. I guess we would have to decide on how long to stop for and where to stop. Mumbai or Chennai spring to mind. See how it goes. Not planning anything right now anyway. Dreamer me.
On this day one year ago we were staying in Venice Beach. Pretty much on the beach. The hotel fronted the boardwalk. In the afternoon we walked along to Santa Monica Pier, the terminus for Route 66. After dark we ate lobster in The Lobster looking down on the pier. Was the most expensive lobster I’d ever eaten and it was dark so we didn’t get the benefit of the view. We live but never learn. Unlikely to eat there again. If I remember I’ll tell you about the rest of the trip later. Mañana.